LA 



^"^^ PUBLIC EDUCATION 
IN NORTH CAROLINA 



A REPORT BY THE 

STATE EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION 

OP NORTH CAROLINA 



GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

6i BROADWAY, NEW YORK 

I 9 2 I 





C)lass_ 
Book.. 



.G-A- 



PUBLICATIONS OF THE GENERAL 
EDUCATION BOARD 

REPORTS: 

THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD: AX ACCOUXT OF ITS 
ACTIVITIES, 1902-1914, CLOTH, 240 PAGES, WITH 33 

FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS AND 31 MAPS. 

ANNUAL REPORTS: 

1914-1915; 1915-191b-; 1916-1917; 1917-1918; 1918-1919; 
1919-1920; 1920-1921. 

STUDIES: 

PUBLIC EDUCATION IN MARYLAND, BY ABRAHAM FLEXNER 

AND FRANK P. BACHMAN. 
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN DELAWARE. 
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN NORTH CAROLINA. 
PRIVATE ENDOWMENT AND PUBLIC EDUCATION A REPORT 

ON THE USE OF THE HANDLEY FUND, WINCHESTER, VA. 
TEACHER TRAINING DEPAHTMENTS IN MINNESOTA HIGH 

SCHOOLS, BY LOTUS D. COFFMAN. 
COLLEGE AND UNIVERSITY FINANCE, BY TREVOR ARNETT.* 

THE SURVEY OF THE GARY SCHOOLS: 

THE GARY SCHOOLS: A GENERAL ACCOUNT, BY ABRAHAM 

FLEXNER AND FRANK P. BACHMAN. 
ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION, BY GEORGE D. STRAYER 

AND FRANK P. BACHMAN. 
COSTS, BY FRANK P. BACHMAN AND RALPH BOWMAN. 
INDUSTRIAL WORK, BY CHARLES R. RICHARDS. 
HOUSEHOLD ARTS, BY EVA W. WHITE. 

PHYSICAL TRAINING AND PLAY^ BY LEE F. HANMER. 
SCIENCE TEACHING, BY OTIS W. CALDWELL. 
MEASURE3IENT OF CLASSROOM PRODUCTS, BY STUART A. 

COURTIS. 



OCCASIONAL PAPERS: 



1. THE COUNTRY SCHOOL OF TO-MORROW, BY FREDERICK T. 

GATES. 

2. CHANGES NEEDED IN AMERICAN SECONDARY EDUCATION, 

BY CHARLES W. ELIOT. 

3. A MODERN SCHOOL, BY ABRAHAM FLEXNER. 

4. THE FUNCTION AND NEEDS OF SCHOOLS OF EDUCATION 

IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, BY EDWIN A. 
ALDERMAN. 

5. LATIN AND THE A. B. DEGREE, BY CHARLES W. ELIOT. 

G. THE WORTH OF ANCIENT LITERATURE TO THE MODERN 

WORLD, BY VISCOUNT BRYCE. 
7. teachers' salaries in AMERICAN COLLEGES AND 

UNIVERSITIES, BY TREVOR ARNETT. 

*In Preparation 



The REPORTS issued by the Board are official accoujits of its 
activities and expenditures. The STUDIES represent work in the 
field of educational investigation and research which tlie Board 
has made possible by appropriations, defraying all or part of the 
expenses involved. The OCCASIONAL PAPERS are essays on 
matters of current educational discussion, presenting topics of 
immediate interest from various points of view. In issuing the 
STUDIES and OCCASIONAL PAPERS, the Board acts simply 
as publisher, assuming no responsibility for the opinions of the 
authors. 

Am/ publication of the Board may be obtained on request. 



PUBLIC EDUCATION 
IN NORTH CAROLINA 77 



A REPORT OF THE 

STATE EDUCATIONAL COMMISSION. 

OF NORTH CAROLINA 

PREPARED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMISSION 

BY THE GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE 

STATE SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION 



GENERAL EDUCATION BOARD 

61 BROADWAY, NEW YORK 
I 9 2 I . 



^'ii 






I 

\ 

1 



PREFACE 



"^ The Legislature of the State of North Carolina, at its 
^ session in 1917, passed an Act creating a State Educa- 
tional Commission to be composed of five members ap- 
pointed by the Governor for a term of two years. The 
General Assembly of 1919 continued this Commission 
for two years and similar action has recently been taken 
under the General Assembly of 1921. 

The Act provided that the Commission should make 
a thorough study of the school laws of the state, a careful 
survey of existing educational conditions, and a com- 
parative study and investigation of the educational sys- 
tems of other states; that the Commission should 
codify the public school laws of the state and make 
recommendation of such amendments, changes and ad- 
ditions to the school law as in its opinion may be needed, 
make a thorough study of the teacher training agencies 
in the state, and report its findings and recommendations 
to the General Assembly of 1921. 

The Commission was made up of the following mem- 
])ers : Eobert H. Wright, chairman ; L. J. Bell, secretary ; 
X. W. Walker, C. E. Brewer and C. C. Wright. 

The Commission invited the General Education 
Board to make the proposed survey and the present 
volume embodies the report made to the Survey Com- 
mission. The Introduction prepared by Dr. E. C. Brooks, 
State Superintendent of Education, outlines the legisla- 
tion adopted by the General Assembly on the recommen- 
dation of the Commission. 



[v] 



CONTENTS 

Pages 

Preface v 

Introduction ix 

PART I. THE SCHOOLS AS THEY ARE 

I. Educational Progress 3 

II. Buildings and Equipment 12 

III. Courses of Study and Length of School 

Term 23 

IV, The Teachers 41 

V. Instruction 58 

PART II. HINDRA:NrCES TO DEVELOPMENT 

VI. Administrative Handicaps 83 

VII. Limitations and Conflicting Develop- 
ments = 92 

PART III. THE WAY OUT 

VIII. Better Administration 107 

IX. Better Trained Teachers 116 

X. Better Financial Support 128 



INTRODUCTION 

The General Assembly of 1917 created a State Edu- 
cational Commission, consisting of five members, to 
make a thorough survey of educational conditions and 
needs in North Carolina. To assist it in carrying out 
its objects the Commission obtained the services of 
the General Education Board, and also enlisted the 
help of all the school officials of the state. The survey 
was completed in October, 1920, and a report of the 
Commission's findings and recommendations submitted 
to the General Assembly of 1921. 

The educational legislation of the General Assembly 
of 1921 followed in the main recommendations outlined 
in this report. It may be classified under the following 
heads: (1) State Administration; (2) City Adminis- 
tration; (3) County Administration; (4) Training of 
teachers; (5) High Schools; and (6) Administration of 
the Public Scliool Fund. 

I. State Admix istratiox 
The following new departments were created, and 
fairly liberal appropriations for their maintenance were 
authorized. 

1. A Division of Teaclier Training, having one direc- 
tor and not more than four supervisors and such as- 
sistants as may be necessary, consistent with the appro- 
priation, which is $25,000 annually. 

2. A Division of Certification of Teacliers, having 
one director and such clerks, stenographers, and assis- 
tants as may be necessary, consistent with the appro- 
priation, which is $25,000 annually. 

3. A Division of Negro Education, having one direc- 
tor and such supervisors and assistants as may be neces- 
sary, consistent with the appropriation, which is $15,000. 
This division is given charge of all normal schools, train- 
ing schools, high schools, elementary schools, and teacher 
training departments for Negroes. 



X IXTRODrCTlOX 

4. A Division of Physical Education, having one direc- 
tor and such assistants as may be necessary, consistent 
with the appropriation, which is $15,000. The State 
Board of Education is authorized to accept any Federal 
funds for the encouragement of physical education and 
to make all needful rules and regulations for promoting 
physical education. 

5. A Division of Sclioolhouse Planning, having one .di- 
rector and such assistants as may be necessary, consistent 
with the appropriation, which is $10,000. 

6. A Division of Publication, having one director and 
such assistants as may be necessary. The State Board 
of Education is authorized to appropriate from the State 
Public School Fund such amount as may be necessary 
for this department. 

7. A Division of Statistics, having one director and 
such clerical assistants as may be necessary, consistent 
with the appropriation, which is $5,000. 

II. City Administration 
The place of the city school in the state educational 
system has never been defined; accordingly, the General 
x4ssembly authorized the State Superintendent of Public 
Instruction to define a city school and the State Board 
of Education to amend city school charters in accord- 
ance with their needs. City schools hereafter will hold 
the same relationship to the State Department of Educa- 
tion as the county school unit holds. In other words^ 
there may be two separate school units — the city school 
unit and the county school unit. 

III. County Administration 
The General Assembly provided for the consolidation 
of schools in such a way as to make the county the unit 
of administration of all schools in the county, except the 
city schools, as defined by the State Superintendent of 
Public Instruction. The State Board of Education was 
authorized, under certain conditions, to charter, amend 
or annul cliarters of school districts Avithin the county 



IXTEODUCTIOX xi 

system. But the State Board of Education cannot charter 
a school district without the approval of the county board 
of education. If the State Board charters a school dis- 
trict it becomes a city school unit. Otherwise the coun- 
ties have the authority to consolidate in such a way as to 
bring all small, independent units under the county system. 

IV. Tkaining of Teachers 

While the survey was under way, the state certifi- 
cation plan was improved and a salary schedule was 
proposed, paralleling the certification plan. According 
to the proposed salary schedule, county and city will 
pay the highest salary to the teacher holding the highest 
certificate and the lowest salary to the teacher holding 
the lowest certificate. The special session of the Gen- 
eral Assembly of 1920 accepted the proposed salary 
schedule. At once a demand arose on the part of teachers 
for further training, and over seven thousand attended 
summer school in order to raise the grade of the certi- 
ficate held and command the correspondingly higher 
salary. Nothing has so stimulated the teaching profes- 
sion as the Certification-Salary Plan. 

In accordance with the recommendations of the State 
Educational Commission, the General Assembly provided 
for the enlargement of its normal schools. The CuUo- 
whee Normal School, the Appalachian Training School, 
the three Negro Normal Schools, and the Normal School 
for the Indians were placed under the control of the 
State Board of Education; the sum of $500,000 was ap- 
propriated for buildings and equipment, and the main- 
tenance fund was more than doubled. 

Moreover, the summer school program, which was 
such a success in the summer of 1920, was enlarged. Two 
classes of summer schools have been provided — the state 
summer school and the county summer school. The 
state summer schools are conducted at the higher in- 
stitutions of the state for a term of six or eight weeks. All 
teachers holding certificates of a certain class and grade 
are entitled to attend the state summer schools. County 



Xii IXTEODUCTIOX 

summer schools of from six to twelve weeks are provided 
for teachers holding lower grades of certificates, and 
teachers receive no credit for attendance unless they 
attend the summer school which is provided for them 
in accordance with the kind of certificate held. Here- 
tofore the state has paid one-half the cost of the county 
summer schools, but, according to the provision of the 
General Assembly, it can pay in the future as much as 
three-fourths of the cost when necessary. 

y. High Schools 

The General Assembly provided for the consolidation 
of schools in such a way as to promote the development 
of high schools. The State Department of Education 
Avas authorized to standardize high schools, and the 
standards recommended by the Educational Commission 
have been adopted. The General Assembly appropriated 
$224,000 to be spent in supplementing high school funds 
after the county and the district have reached a certain 
limit. This is for the purpose of equalizing the burden 
of support and of increasing the number of standard high 
schools in the rural districts. 

A^I. Admixistration of the Public School Fund 

One of the greatest changes made is in the manner of 
administering and safeguarding the public school funds. 
This is in accordance with the recommendations of the 
State Educational Commission and in brief is as follows: 

On or before the first day of August of each year the 
county board of education of each county shall cause 
to be audited the books of the treasurer of the county 
school fund and the account of the county board of edu- 
cation, and shall provide for the cost of the same, where 
a county auditor is not provided by special statute, out 
of the incidental fund. The auditor's report shall 
show : 

(1) The total amount belonging to the county for 
the six-montlis school term, as shown by the tax books; 
what part has been collected and deposited with the 



IxTRODUCTiox xiii 

treasurer for the current year; and what balance for the 
previous year has been collected or still remains un- 
collected by the tax collector. 

(2) The number of schools in the county, other than 
city schools, supported in part by special local taxes; 
the number supported entirely from the funds appropri- 
ated from the state and county six-months school fund; 
and the total amount of special local taxes raised for 
schools and belonging to the credit of each special local 
tax district and how this fund has been disbursed. 

(3) The salary, traveling expenses, clerical assist^ 
ance, and other office expenses of the county superintend- 
ent and the county board of education. 

(4) The total salaries paid teachers, supervisors, prin- 
cipals and all other employees employed in the county 
system, what part was paid out of the State and county 
six-months school funds, and what part was paid out of 
the special local tax funds. 

(5) The amount of the incidental and building fund 
received, the source of the fund, and how it was dis- 
bursed. 

The auditor shall compare the expenditures with the 
approved budget and report whether all salaries and 
other expenses have been paid in accordance with law, 
and by what amount the school fund received or to be 
received exceeds or falls short of the estimated amount 
needed, as set forth in the May budget. 

The auditor's report shall be published in some news- 
paper circulating in the county, or in bulletin form, and 
one copy each shall be sent to the State Superintendent 
of Public Instruction, the chairman of the county board 
of commissioners, and the chairman of the county board 
of education. 

In like manner and in similar detail, unless other- 
wise provided in special act, the board of education of 
each city school district shall cause to be audited the 
accounts of the treasurer and board of education of the 
respective city school district. 



xiv IXTKODUCTION" 

If the count}' board of education or city board of edu- 
cation shall fail to have all accounts audited as provided 
herein^ the State Superintendent of Public Instruction 
shall notify the State Tax Commission, and said State 
Tax Commission shall send an auditor to said county 
or city and have the accounts audited in accordance 
with the provisions of this section, and all expenses for 
the same shall be paid by the county board of education 
or the city board of education, as the case may be. If 
the county superintendent of schools shall fail to keep 
the records of the county board of education in such 
manner that they may be audited in accordance with 
the provisions of this act, the State Board of Educa- 
tion may revoke his certificate. Moreover, if the Treas- 
urer fails to keep all school funds in the manner pre- 
scribed by law, the board of education may sue on his 
bond and recover at any time such amount as may be due 
the schools on the Sheriff ^s receipt. 

Continuation of Educational Commission 

The State Educational Commission was continued by 
the General Assembly of 1921. The Commission will 
cooperate with the State Department of Education in 
working out further basic changes essential to the pro- 
per development of the school system of the State; the 
Commission intends also to present to the legislature a 
complete systematization and codification of the public 
school laws. 

(Signed) E.. C. BROOKS 
State Superintendent of Education 



PART I 

THE SCHOOLS AS THEY ARE 

CHAPTERS I-V 



I. EDUCATIONAL PROGRESS 

THE maintenance of a free system of public schools 
seems today among the self-evident functions of 
a democratic goverment. But it has not always 
been so. Public education has had to win its way against 
severe opposition— nowhere, perhaps, against heavier 
odds than in our own state. 

North Carolina was chiefly settled by the English, 
who brought with them deep-seated class distinctions, 
a repugnance to public taxation, and the firmly rooted 
belief that education is a private and not a public matter. 
Certain sections were settled more particularly by non- 
English immigrants — for example, the Moravians settled 
in Forsyth, the Swiss in Craven, the Scotch-Irish in the 
southern and western sections, and the Germans in the 
south-central and western portions. These non-English, 
like the English, settlers believed that education belonged 
to the family and the church, and not to the state. 
Moreover, traditions and convictions were fortified by 
the mode of life and the isolation of the people, by slavery 
in the early days, and more recently by the presence 
of a large number of freedmen. Nevertheless, gradually 
the objections to public education gave way before an 
enlightened and democratic sentiment. It is difficult 
for the present generation to realize the greatness of 
the change which has been wrought. Only those of an 
older generation, who remember Dr. Wiley begging his 
fellow citizens to join in procuring legislative permission 
for Winston to organize public schools, even though pro- 
hibited from levying taxes to support them, can appre- 
ciate the distance traveled from that day to this, when 
Winston-Salem votes a bond issue of $800,000 for pubHc 
schools. An even more striking example of the change 

92468 — 2 



4 Public Education in North Carolina 

wrought is Rocky Mount, voting a separate bond issue 
of $38,000 for the erection of colored schools. In the 
development of this progressive educational sentiment 
have labored some of the noblest sons of the old North 
State — Vance, Jarvis, Aycock, Caldwell, Murphy, Battle, 
Wiley, Mclver, Joyner, Graham, and many others. 

Expansion of the System 

The public schools now include elementary schools, 
high schools, normal schools, agricultural and engineering 
colleges, the North Carolina College for Women, and 
the State University. The State University, the head 
of the system, was the first of these established, being 
chartered in 1789 and opened in 1795. The history of 
the University is in a way the history of the state, for 
its graduates have been intimately associated these 
hundred years with every movement for the economic 
political, moral, and educational betterment of the 
commonwealth. 

Fifty years elapsed between the founding of the Uni- 
versity and the establishment of public elementary 
schools in 1839. Their establishment represented a 
tremendous advance in educational sentiment. For, 
while the State University was founded as a child of the 
state and under its control, the state did not assume 
responsibility for its support. In contrast, the state 
did assume responsibility for maintaining public ele- 
mentary schools, as the law of 1839 recognized the right 
of the state to use state funds and to authorize the levy 
of local taxes in their behalf. 

More than three-quarters of a century have therefore 
elapsed since the establishment of the first public ele- 
mentary schools. In the meantime, selfish interests 
and prejudice have many times attacked this basic in- 
stitution of democracy. Its foundations have frequently 



Educational Progress 5 

been shaken, and often the work of years seemed lost. 
Yet, despite opposition to taxes, cold indifference, vested 
interests, class prejudice, the public elementary school 
has slowly but surely won its way with the people. To 
this deepening appreciation the 5,422 rural schoolhouses 
for white children in 1918, and the 2,316 for colored chil- 
dren, exclusive of the schools of the 136 specially char- 
tered districts, are irrefutable witnesses. 

The study program of the first public elementary schools 
as elsewhere was simple : It included the merest elements 
of an English education — reading, spelling, writing, and 
arithmetic, with an occasional class in grammar and geog- 
raphy. From time to time other studies have been added, 
so that now all public elementary schools must, according 
to the law, teach reading, spelling, writing, arithmetic, 
drawing, language lessons, and composition, English 
grammar, geography, history of North Carolina and of. 
the United States, the elements of agriculture, elemen- 
tary physiology and hygiene, home economics for girls 
and manual training for boys. 

The broadening of the elementary program is by no 
means the most significant extension of public educa- 
tion. Until recently, the public elementary school was 
a blind alley; it led nowhere, for there were no public high 
schools. Boys and girls desiring more than an English 
education were compelled to attend private academies 
or preparatory schools, which then existed in large num- 
bers; ^ but for the great majority the fees were prohibitive. 
However, as the public elementary schools developed, 
certain of the stronger — first the graded city schools and 
then an occasional rural school — provided some high 
school work. Yet, as late as 1886 there were only eight 
city schools in the state reporting high school instruc- 



^In 1890 there were in 72 counties of the state — the others not reporting — a total 
of 526 private and preparatory schools, having a white enrollment of 24,301, and 
a colored enrollment of 4,413. Superintendent's Report, 1889-1890, page 89. 



6 Public Education in North Carolina 

tion^ and only two went so far as the tenth grade. Never- 
theless, the leaven was at work. Twenty years later 
(1906) practically all of the 78 specially chartered dis- 
tricts (city schools) supported some kind of high school, 
and 968 country white schools and 90 country colored 
schools were teaching some high school subjects. As 
to the enrollment at this time, there are no rehable data, 
but the Superintendent's report for 1902-1903 gives for 
the rural schools, 5,724 pupils studying algebra, 6,801 
higher English, and 663 Latin. 

With the need so obvious and pressing, the state under- 
took in 1907 to encourage the establishment of county 
high schools, and, through special financial aid, to lessen 
their local cost. The response was immediate; the high 
school inspector in 1908 reported 213 public high schools, 
132 in the counties, and 81 in the cities and towns. The 
enrollment in 177 of those reporting was 6,398. This, 
however, was merely the beginning. A decade later 
(1918) there were 209 county and 149 local and city high 
schools 2 with a combined enrollment of 23,461, these 
figures taking no account of scores of small schools giving 
some high school instruction. 

Our public schools have developed in still other ways. 
Not the least of these is the lengthening of the school 
year, particularly in the rural schools. Our city schools, 
like city schools elsewhere, have always had a school year 
ranging from eight to ten months, the usual length. Ac- 
cordingly, the city school year has undergone little change. 
At present the average is more than eight and one-half 
months for the 39 cities having a population (census of 
1910) of 2,500 and over. The great change has come in 
the length of the rural school term. The average for 



iThese cities were: Goldsboro, Charlotte, Durham, New Bern, Greensboro, 
Wilson, Salisbury, and Winston. Superintendent's Report, 1885-1886, page 92. 

^Thirteen of the city and town high schools in 1907, and 37 in 1918, received state 
aid and were also classed as county high schools, as they were open without tuition 
to the children of the county. 



Educational Progress 7 

white schools in 1880 was only 48 days. Decade by de- 
cade this has slowly lengthened, rising to 73 in 1900, and 
to 116 in 1915; in no county in 1919, owing to the new 
school law, did the rural school term fall below 120 days, 
and in a number it was longer. 

Measured alone by the average length of term, to say 
nothing of increased efficiency, the elementary school 
opportunities of rural boys and girls have, within the last 
forty years, increased about one and a half times. 

The public school has also slowly extended its benefits 
to a larger and larger proportion of the boys and girls of 
school age. This is shown in the increased per cent of 
the total school population going to school. The school 
population includes all children between six and twenty- 
one years of age. It is not expected that all children of 
these ages will attend school — for example, children 
nineteen and twenty years old. The law merely keeps 
the door open to these older children. Nevertheless, 
any increase in the percentage of the entire group attend- 
ing school indicates an increase in the attractive power 
of the school. On this basis the hold of the public school 
on the people of the state in 1880 was weak, as only 51 
per cent of the total school population were in the pubhc 
schools; by 1900, 58 per cent of the school population 
came under public school influence; by 1910, 71 per cent; 
and by 1918, 74 per cent. The school enrollment thus 
increased between 1880 and 1918 147 per cent, whereas 
the school population increased only 68 per cent.^ In 
short, the public school now reaches annually, for periods 
of varying length, practically four out of every five of the 
white youth, and practically seven out of every ten 
colored youth of legal school age. 

As a final instance of the development of the system. 



iln the corresponding period the enrollment of the white school population rose 
from 54 to 78 per cent and the enrollment of the colored school population from 
47 to 69 per cent. 



8 Public Education in North Carolina 

we cite the establishment of institutions for the training 
of teachers.! The teacher is always the essential factor 
in a good school. Obvious as this would seem, the Amer- 
ican people as a whole have never appreciated it. Fol- 
lowing the common practice, we launched our public 
school system but made no provision for the training of 
teachers. Despite the repeated sohcitations of educators 
for the establishment of teacher training schools, the state 
took no step in this direction until 1877, when a summer 
school for white teachers at the University and a state 
colored normal school at Fayetteville were established. 
From time to time thereafter additional summer schools 
were organized — four for colored and eight for white 
teachers. From these beginnings grew the present teacher 
training facilities of the state, which comprise, for white 
teachers, the school of education at the University, the 
North Carolina College for Women (established in 1891), 
the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School (1893), 
the Appalachian Training School (1903), and the East 
Carolina Teachers Training School (1907). The state 
now supports three schools for colored teachers — the 
state colored normal schools at Fayetteville, Elizabeth 
City, and Winston-Salem — and for the training of Indian 
teachers the Cherokee Indian Normal School at Pembroke. 
Besides these institutions, the state has recently estab- 
lished teacher training departments in twelve high schools, 
and six or eight week summer schools in most of the 
counties. 

Increased Financial Support 

The growth in public sentiment has expressed itself 
also in more and more liberal financial support of the 
public schools. For example, the total expenditure in 



'While not considered here, it should be noted that the State College of Agri- 
culture and Engineering, at West Raleigh, was established in 1889, and the Agri- 
cultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, at Greensboro, in 1891. 



Educational Progress 



9 



round terms for all public school purposes — state, county 
and local — was: 

In 1880 S 396,000.00 

In 1890 787,000.00 

In 1900 1,092,000.00 

In 1910 3,179,000.00 

In 1919 8,105,000.00 

or an increase of about 155 per cent in 1919 over 1910, 
and of about 642 per cent over 1900. 

1880H $396,000 

1890 ■■ 1787.000 

1900 I^H $1.09Z.000 

1910^H^^^^H $3J79.006 

19 19 H^^H|^HH|^^H^H^M|^H|^H $8,105,000 

Figure 1 
Growth in Total Public School Expenditures 



The most healthy pubUc schools depend on local taxes 
for the major part of their support. It is therefore inter- 
esting to note that an increasing proportion of school funds 
is derived from local taxes, that is, taxes other than state 
and county. For instance, in 1903 local taxes produced 
only 12 per cent of the total current school revenues, 
whereas ten years later, in 1913, 32 per cent and in 1918 
34 per cent were so derived. As elsewhere, ^villingness 
to pay local school taxes developed earlier and is stronger 
in the cities than in the rural sections. For example, in 
1918 the cities raised locally 60 per cent of their total 
current school revenue, as against 20 per cent in the 
counties 



10 



Public Education in North Carolina 



The increased financial support of the schools shows 
itself particularly in the increase in the annual current 
expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance, and 
in the increased investment in school property, such as 
grounds, buildings, and equipment. The annual current 
expenditure per pupil in average daily attendance was, 
for city and county : 

In 1880 $ 2.10 

In 1890 3.48 

In 1900 4.43 

In 1910 7.55 

In 1918 12.64 

with an annual current per pupil expenditure in the cities 
of $20.68, and in the rural districts of $10.63. 

1880 ■■■ ^ 2.10 



1890 
1900 
19 10 
1918 



4 3.48 
$ 4.43 



$7.53 



# 12. G4 



Figure 2 
Growth in Current Expenditures per Pupil in Average Daily Attendance 

On the other hand, the capital investment in school 
property was: 

In 1880, $ 227,404.00 or $ .88 per pupil enrolled 
In 1890, 792,304.00 or 2.43 per pupil enrolled 

In 1900, 1,115,250.00 or 2.72 per pupil enrolled 
In 1910, 5,862,969.00 or 11.27 per pupil enrolled 
In 1918, 14,303,503.00 or 22.50 per pupil enrolled 

For the cities alone the .investment per pupil enrolled 
was, in 1918, $54.92 and for the rural districts, $15.12. 



Educational Progress 11 

1 880 I $ 0.88 

1 890 ■ # 2.43 

1900 M # 2.72 

1910^M|^H 4 11.27 

19 18 ^■^^^^^^■^■^H $ ZZ.55 



FlGtTRE 3 

Growth in Value of School Property per Pupil Enrolled 

From the preceding account, it is clear that the pubUc 
schools are firmly established, that they are constantly 
reaching out to meet more and more adequately the needs 
of a developing commonwealth, and that their financial 
support is increasingly liberal. Public education in North 
Carolina has, therefore, made marked progress, especially 
within the last twenty years. Of this progress the fullest 
and frankest acknowledgment should be made. On the 
other hand, careful investigation reveals serious defects 
and hindrances. The present report undertakes to pre- 
sent the facts as they are, and to offer recommendations 
for the improvement of our public school system. We 
will, therefore, in succession (1) describe the schools as 
they are, including the character of the buildings, courses 
of study and length of term, the training of the teachers, 
and the quality of the instruction; (2) inquire into such 
hindrances as have limited their service and retarded 
their development; and (3) point out what steps should 
be taken at this time to widen their influence and increase 
their efficiency, particularly in so far as this can be ac- 
complished through legislation and state action. 



II. BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT 

OUR public school buildings may be divided, for 
purposes of description, into rural schoolhouses, 
those under county boards of education, and 
city schoolhouses, those of specially chartered districts.* 

Rural Schoolhouses ^ 

At the end of the school year 1917-1918 there were in 
the state 7,738 rural schoolhouses, of which 5,422 were 
for white and 2,316 were for colored children. Few white 
schoolhouses and less than half of the colored school- 
houses are more than twenty years old, for, since 1900, 
5,070 new rural schoolhouses for white and 1,293 for 
colored children have been erected. It might, therefore, 
be expected that at least the rural white schools would 
have good plants, and that approximately half of the 
colored schoolhouses would be of recent design. This, 
however, is not the case. For, from the revival of inter- 
est in public education after 1876 until very recently, 
the paramount question before rural school authoriti^.-s 
was not how well, but how cheaply could building be 
done; it was not for them a question of building a modern 
schoolhouse, but of procuring any schoolhouse at all that 
would shelter the pupils and keep the schools going. 

As a rule, the funds available were extremely small. 
For example, the average value of grounds, buildings, 
and equipment of rural schoolhouses in 1880 was about 
$50; in 1890, about $130; in 1900, $160; in 1910, $420; 



'There are in the state 136 specially chartered districts, or city school systems. 

^Our description of rural schoolhouses is based on data taken from the annual 
reports of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and on personal observa- 
tion. We spent during the course of our study four and a half months in the rural 
schools, visiting thirty-one counties in all sections of the state. 
[12] 



Buildings and Equipment 13 

and in 1918, $1,000. For the corresponding period the 
average value of white rural schoolhouses rose from $50 
in 1880 to $1,290 in 1918; and of colored schoolhouses, 
from $50 in 1880 to $350 in 1918. 

This increased outlay per rural schoolhouse appears, 
first, in the character of the buildings erected, that is, 
whether brick, frame or log. In 1890, for example, 29 
per cent of all rural schoolhouses were log; in 1918, less 
than 3 per cent, with less than 1 per cent log for white 
children and 7 per cent for colored children. At the same 
time the percentage of frame houses rose from 71 per 
cent in 1890 to 95 per cent in 1918. 

There has been a corresponding improvement in school 
furniture. Since 1905 home-made benches have practically 
disappeared from white schools, while the percentage 
of schools with home-made desks has decreased from 
60 to 22, and the number furnished with patent desks 
has increased from 19 to 74 per cent. Similarly in colored 
schools: In 1905, 44 per cent were seated with home- 
made benches, in 1918, 15 per cent, while the percent- 
age furnished with patent desks has risen from 3 to 32 
per cent. 

The rural school situation is thus in general encourag- 
ing. Not only are larger sums being spent per rural 
schoolhouse, but these are being built more and more 
substantially and are being more and more fittingly 
furnished. 

Smaller Rural Schoolhouses 

Of the 7,738 rural schoolhouses in 1918, 60 per cent, 
or 4,643, were one room schools; 28 per cent, or 2,167, were 
two room schools; 7 per cent, or 541, were three room 
schools, and 5 per cent, or 387, were schools of four or more 
rooms. 1 



iThere is probably a small error in the number of one, two, and three room 
schoolhouses given above, as the estimate is based on the number of schools 
reported as having one, two, three, or more teachers. 



14 Public Education in North Carolina 

In describing the smaller rural schools — those having 
three rooms or less — it should be held in mind, as stated 
above, that they were mostly built at a time when severe 
economy was necessary. Only recently has it been pos- 
sible to give weight to the sanitary, educational, and 
social requirements of a good rural school. Consequent- 
ly, a majority of the rural schoolhouses — probably three- 
fourths — are unsatisfactory. Only the newer buildings, 
those erected within the last five or six years, approxi- 
mate acceptable standards. 

The older one room buildings are one story, box-like 
structures, differing from each other chiefly in size. 
Usually unpainted and in ill repair, their weatherbeaten 
exteriors present a cheerless picture. Nor are they more 
cheerful within. Ordinarily there is but a single room, 
seldom a vestibule or cloak room. The hats and coats 
of the children hang from nails driven into the walls. 
The windows, on three sides, if not on four, give a cross- 
work of light and shade that is not only trying to the eyes 
but accentuates the smoky, brown ugliness of the ceilings 
and walls. The walls are usually of natural pine, rarely 
plastered, and less often decorated. The old-fashioned 
'Mong John" stove radiates its cheer on a chilly day from 
its place of honor in the center of the room; but even the 
kindly stove all too often becomes a torment. The wind- 
fall pine fuel makes a quick but transitory heat, so that 
at one moment the room is hot to suffocation and a half 
hour later cold to the point of discomfort. Even when 
the room is seemingly comfortable, the children may be 
half hot and half cold. They may be comfortable about 
the head and shoulders, and at the same time the cold 
winds, sweeping under the schoolhouse — which is with- 
out proper underpinning — up through the floor and into 
the classroom may be biting at their feet and legs. While 
some children enjoy the comforts of patent desks and 





OLD TYPE ONE ROOM RURAL SCHOOLS 



Buildings and Equipment 15 

occasionally of patent single desks, others quite as often 
must sit six weary hours a day on home-made desks and 
sometimes even on home-made benches. Home-made 
desks and benches are particularly common in colored 
schools. Seldom are there adequate provisions for drink- 
ing water or for the washing of hands and face, to say 
nothing of adequate toilet facilities. There is now active 
an excellent piece of new legislation requiring the con- 
struction at all schoolhouses of sanitary privies, one for 
boys and one for girls. At present, however, taking the 
rural schools as a whole, probably less than 60 per cent 
have adequate toilet provisions, and probably half of 
the outhouses are dilapidated, disreputable, and filthy 
beyond belief. 

The teacher's lot in these older one room rural schools 
is uninviting. She may have a table or desk on which 
to work and a chair to sit on, but she can not count on 
having them. Rarely is she provided with a set of text- 
books m use, unless she purchases them out of her meager 
pay. Of general educational equipment there is little — 
perhaps a small strip of composition blackboard or a 
patch of painted wall, occasionally a map of North Caro- 
lina, and not infrequently a small, ill-kept and much worn 
school library. A young inexperienced girl, placed in 
one of these shed-like, poorly heated, poorly ventilated, 
and poorly equipped schoolhouses, is expected to conduct 
a school. 

Moreover, in far too many cases the teacher is expected 
to do the janitor work. The sweeping is usually done 
at the noon hour ; the cloud of dust thus raised is breathed 
by pupils returning from their noon play. She is also 
expected to prepare the fuel. The windfall pine is hauled 
to the schoolhouse and usually thrown on the ground out- 
side (woodsheds are rare), and the teacher depends on 



16 Public Education in North Carolina 

the older boys to cut it into stove lengths. A corner of 
the schoolroom provides the only storage for fuel against 
storm and rain. 

The sites of these older schools — in fact, of almost all 
the rural schools — vary in size from one to two acres; 
they are usually well located, on a main traveled road, 
but the grounds are as a rule unimproved and without 
play apparatus. Even when the teacher seeks to im- 
prove the grounds, nature in seven or eight months undoes 
more than she can do in the course of a school year of 
four or five months, with the result that, while many of 
the rural schools are picturesque in their setting, sur- 
rounded by beautiful trees, the great majority have only 
a bare spot in front of the schoolhouse for play, with the 
forest and underbrush crowding in on all sides. 

The above descriptions answer also for the older two 
and three room schoolhouses, which are, usually, one 
room buildings with an additional room or two tacked 
on. The new rooms are sometimes put at the side of 
the original room, sometimes at the rear, and sometimes 
crosswise at the rear. Whatever the method of en- 
largement, the additions have the same defects as the 
original structure — they are poorly lighted, poorly ven- 
tilated, poorly heated, poorly equipped — while the new 
rooms usually decrease rather than add to the fitness of 
the original room. Frequently some of its windows are 
closed, so that it is still more inadequately lighted; slid- 
ing doors are often placed between the original room and 
one or both of the new rooms to provide an auditorium 
for school and community gatherings. Such a meeting 
place is much to be desired; nevertheless, the sliding 
doors not infrequently reduce the blackboard space and 
increase the general ugliness of the original room. 

The newer rural schoolhouses — those erected within 
the last five or six years — are different. These newer 





OLD TYPE ONE ROOM RURAL SCHOOLS 



Buildings and Equipment 17 

structures number about a fourth ^ of all the small rural 
schools, and most of them, especially the Rosenwald 
colored schools, 2 represent a decided advance over the 
older buildings just described. They are architecturally 
pleasing, being painted, and having entrance porches, 
vestibules, and cloak rooms. They are usually plastered 
and decorated, equipped with composition blackboards, 
seated with either double or single patent desks, and 
fairly well provided with educational equipment. These 
newer school buildings are thus a great credit to the state. 
However, even some of these are too cheaply built for 
permanency and leave much to be desired in the way of 
lighting, heating, ventilation, toilet and sanitary arrange- 
ments. Of the very best of the newly built structures, 
few, with the exception of some of the Rosenwald schools, 
have a workroom for boys and girls, a place for serving 
hot luncheons to children, or a place for play in bad 
weather, while the patent heater is practically unknown. 

Larger Rural Schoolhouses 

The larger rural schoolhouses, that is, those having 
four or more rooms and located, mostly, in consolidated 
and special tax districts, are of three principal types: 
(1) rambling, one story buildings that have grown into 
four, five, and even six teacher schools by the addition 
of one or more rooms at a time to an original one or two 
room school; (2) two story frame structures of a half 
dozen classrooms; and (3) brick buildings. 

The larger rural schoolhouses of the first type have 
most of the defects of the older one room school and some 



iBetween 1913 and 1918 there were erected 1,414 new rural school buildings for 
white children and 494 for colored children. 

^Mr. Julius Rosenwald, of Chicago, co-operates with local school authorities in 
providing rural schoolhouses for colored children, contributing, as a rule, $300 
when the authorities and the community contribute an equal amount, or larger 
sums in approximately the same ratio. Up to March, 1919, HI colored rural sc hools 
have thus been built in North Carolina. 



18 Public Education in North Carolina 

besides. They are, however, generally seated with patent 
desks, fairly well equipped with instructional materials, 
and usually have cloak rooms and outside toilets. Never- 
theless, they are frequently less pleasing • in external 
appearance than their older prototype, the hghting is 
often poorer, the fire hazard from the single stove is greater 
and the building as a whole noisier, more confused, and 
more untidy. Buildings of this type are usually occupied 
by mill children or colored children. Such buildings 
can not be condemned too strongly, representing, as they 
sometimes do, not so much a lack of means, as indifference 
to the rights of children and a desire to escape school 
taxes. 

The second type, or the large two story frame structure, 
provides for both a rural elementary and high school, 
and has an auditorium for school and community gath- 
erings. As a rule they displaced one or two room schools 
and in many instances were a tremendous local advance 
in school facilities. They likewise represent an awakened 
interest in public education and were often erected at 
great financial sacrifice. Some of them are attractive 
from the outside, but few from within. Almost without 
exception they violate the principles of good lighting, 
heating, and ventilation, and the fire hazard, separate 
stoves being used, is very great. However, in most locali- 
ties they have served their generation and must soon give 
way before the rising demand for more appropriate school 
buildings. 

The final type is the large brick structure of the con- 
solidated or special tax district. Of these larger and more 
substantial buildings there is at least one in a majority 
of the counties. Some of them are located in the open 
country and some in villages. They are mainly of recent 
date, and some of them are extremely well planned, 
following the latest ideas of schoolhouse construction. 
The classrooms are properly lighted from one side, ap- 












TYPICAL RURAL SCHOOL OUTHOUSES 



Buildings and Equipment 19 

propriately furnished with single patent desks, bookcases, 
teacher's desk and chair, and well provided with instruc- 
tional materials. They are heated by steam or hot air, 
artificially ventilated, and have inside sanitary lavatories 
and toilets. Besides the usual classrooms, there are one 
or more offices and teachers' rooms, a library, science 
laboratories, cooking room, workshop, the needed store- 
rooms, and an auditorium; in no instance, however, is 
there a gymnasium. In connection with the best of 
these schools, when in the open country, there are dor- 
mitories for boys and girls, and occasionally appropriate 
teachers' homes. Such buildings are an honor to any 
community and represent the high-water mark of rural 
educational sentiment. 

However, of these larger rural brick buildings only a 
few possess the merits just enumerated. Many of them 
have been built too cheaply for permanency and are 
faulty in construction, with bad classroom arrangement 
and lighting, poor ventilation, insanitary lavatory and 
toilet facihties; not infrequently too much has been sac- 
rificed, we believe, to the auditorium. In consequence 
of the defects of many of these larger brick buildings 
most of them will need to be replaced at no distant date, 
if the children of these prosperous and progressive com- 
munities are to be comfortably and healthfully housed. 

The sites of these schools comprise from six to ten 
acres, and in the case of the so-called farm life schools 
there is usually a good-sized farm besides. Sites of such 
size are ample for all school purposes, providing ample 
grounds, play space, athletic fields, and demonstration 
plots. So far little has been done to develop the play and 
athletic opportunities of these sites, and few are fur- 
nished with play apparatus. Since the modern school 
is expected not only to educate and refine the children 
but also the adult population, the schoolhouse and grounds 

92468—3 



20 Public Education in North Carolina 

should be an object lesson to all. In these respects little 
can be expected under present conditions from the smaller 
and older rural schools, but the larger and best of the 
rural schools should be models of cleanliness, order, and 
beauty. Although most of the larger schools are new, 
yet it would seem that more could have been done than 
has been done to beautify them. Within sight of many 
are vines, shrubs, and trees of rare beauty — jasmine, 
honeysuckle, azaleas, rhododendrons, dogwood, redbud, 
holly, scarlet maple, gum trees, pines, etc. With such 
beautiful material at hand, teachers and pupils, working 
together, might make the school grounds of the state 
renowned, and not only add to the attractiveness of the 
schools themselves, but also strongly influence the move- 
ment for better and more attractive homes. 

GiTY SCHOOLHOUSESI 

The schoolhouses of the cities may be divided into. older 
and newer structures. The older structures, whether 
they be in the smaller or the larger cities, represent mostly 
buildings erected at the time the graded schools were 
organized, and were built chiefly between 1890 and 1910. 

When the graded schools of the cities were first organ- 
ized, the financial strain of providing quarters and main- 
taining the schools was great. Consequently, with few 
exceptions, the buildings erected prior to 1910, although 
generally of brick, are very poor. Again, the original 
defects of these buildings have in many instances been 
aggravated by additions made to accommodate increased 
enrollments, so that almost all the older buildings are 
now antiquated and unsatisfactory. 

Among the newer structures, erected within the last 
half dozen years, are some excellent buildings. These 



'Our observations on city schools are based on a personal study of practically 
all the schoolhouses of all the cities of the state having a population of 2,500 or 
more according to the census of 1910. 





BETTER TYPE ONE ROOM RURAL SCHOOLS 



Buildings and Equipment 21 

present a beautiful exterior and interior appearance, 
are properly lighted, heated, and ventilated, and are 
provided with modern conveniences, including well equip- 
ped and ample play space, well planned and improved 
grounds, and occasionally a gymnasium. Yet not infre- 
quently even these newer buildings have been built 
too cheaply and in many instances have not been care- 
fully planned. Defects due to lack of funds could not 
be avoided, but expert advice could have prevented 
some of them. Probably three-fourths of all the city 
schoolhouses of the state, especially those for colored 
children, should, for sanitary and other reasons, be re- 
placed. 

This, however, is not the only problem facing the cities. 
Playgrounds are now a recognized essential of a good 
school. Only the most progressive cities have recognized 
this requirement, and only a few schools, for example, 
those at Wilmington and Winston-Salem, have grounds 
ample for play purposes. Fortunately, in most cities 
play space can still be procured on reasonable terms, 
and no new building should be erected on grounds that 
do not afford children ample opportunity for free physical 
development. 

To summarize: Within recent years great advances 
have been made throughout the state in public school 
buildings. These are being more substantially built, 
and better equipped. Nevertheless, the school building 
situation is now extremely acute, first, because of the 
crowded condition, especially in the cities, and, second, 
because of unsatisfactory sanitary conditions. Probably 
three-fourths of all the rural and city schoolhouses now 
standing should be replaced. 

The people of the state are aroused to the unsatisfactory 
character of their schoolhouses ; they are likewise desirous 
of rebuilding them and making them the best possible. 



22 Public Education in North Carolina 

Unquestionably, North Carolina has entered on the great- 
est and most extensive school building program of its 
history. 

Before the state goes too far, should not earnest con- 
sideration be given to the following questions? — 

1. Is it wise for North Carolina to continue to build 
only for the present? Has not North Carolina reached 
the point in its financial development where it can build 
permanently? Its entire rural school plant has practi- 
cally been rebuilt twice within the memory of men now 
living, first, between 1876 and 1900, and for the second 
time since 1900, with probably three-fourths of all rural 
schoolhouses again ready to be displaced for the third 
time. The loss to the cities for this same cause has also 
been great, but probably not relatively so great as in the 
rural districts. For the state as a whole, out of the pres- 
ent total investment of more than fourteen millions in 
pubhc school buildings, probably half, if not more, has 
been lost because buildings have been constructed too 
cheaply, and with too little reference to sound principles. 

2. Is it wise for the State of North Carolina, facing an 
enormous expenditure for public school buildings in the 
immediate future, to permit rural districts and cities to 
go forward with buildings which are defective in arrange- 
ment, Hghting, heating, ventilation, personal service 
facilities, etc.? Has not the time come when the state, 
through the state department of education, working in 
co-operation with county and city boards of education, 
should exercise supervision over the planning and erec- 
tion of all schoolhouses, to the end that these may be 
built in conformity to well accepted sanitary, educational, 
and social requirements, and that the health of the chil- 
dren and the purse of the taxpayers may both be safe- 
guarded? 



III. COURSES OF STUDY AND LENGTH OF THE 
SCHOOL TERM 







UITE as important as good buildings and good 
equipment in the make-up of a good school are 
the course of study and the length of school term. 

The Elementary Course of Study 



The course of study under which the elementary schools 
now operate, issued in 1904, was revised in 1909, in 1917, 
and in 1919. Despite these revisions, its essential char- 
acter has remained throughout the same. When first 
outlined, in 1904, work was prescribed in seven different 
studies, all to be taught in each cf seven grades, but with 
varying emphasis. The several studies were as follows: 



1. 


Reading 




a. Spelling 




b. Literature 


2. 


Language 


3. 


Drawing 


4. 


Arithmetic 


5. 


History 


6. 


Geography 


7. 


General : Health talks and current history 



The revision of 1909 included nine required studies: 
spelhng was separated from reading, physiology substi- 
tuted for health talks, and agriculture added. The re- 
vision of 1919 required ten studies, handwriting being 
elevated to a formal place in the program; in addition, 
courses were outlined for the teaching of sewing and cook- 
ing to girls in the sixth and seventh grades, which, along 
with agriculture and manual training, became required 
studies in 1917. 

[23] 



24 Public Education in North Carolina 

The number of studies to be taught in each of the several 
grades of the elementary schools is large; but the number 
is not uncommonly large, for not infrequently music, 
free play and physical education are also required. The 
amount and character of the subject matter prescribed, 
the methods of presentation and helps suggested compare 
favorably with similar efforts elsewhere The North 
Carolina course has, however, the weakness of most seven 
year programs; that is, about the same amount of work 
is crowded into seven school years as is ordinarily found 
in eight year programs. 

The several courses prescribed for the elementary 
schools of North Carolina also contain definite rules for 
the advancement of children from grade to grade. These 
are as follows : 

''If the school year is not long enough to complete 
the course in each grade the work should be continued 
in the next year until it is completed, and the classes 
show a knowledge sufficient to warrant promotion. Chil- 
dren should not be permitted to pass from one grade to 
another until such evidence is given. Reading and lan- 
guage should be the basis of promotion in the first three 
grades. The work as outlined for each grade can be 
completed in about eight months.' ' 

Whether the state in its attempt to improve rural 
schools should have adopted a standard seven year course, 
involving an eight months' school year and regular at- 
tendance, is not at issue. We can not, however, pass 
over certain conditions that existed in 1904 and mostly 
continue to exist, and other conditions that have resulted 
from the effort of the rural schools to follow a standard 
seven year program, which affect unfavorably their pres- 
ent efficiency. 

Even in large schools the modern elementary program 
imposes a heavy burden upon teachers. If burdensome 









■I^^^^Bii T?| ffwIBPii ^ ''''' 


^^^^^^^^^HjHP - 


'^^"^ffllHHHH 




'"^^H 








BETTER TYPE ONE ROOM RURAL SCHOOLS 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 25 

in large schools, where a teacher seldom has children of 
more than two grades and the work is often department- 
alized, what must it be in one and two room schools, 
where one teacher either has all seven grades and a primer 
class besides, or, at the very least, not less than three or 
four different grades? ^ An investigation by the state 
department in 1904 showed that where one teacher taught 
all the required studies, the number of daily recitations 
varied from thirty-five to fifty-five. At the present time 
the usual number ranges from twenty-five to thirty-five; 
this allows about ten minutes for each recitation. A 
teacher can do little in so brief a period. Moreover, 
the situation is aggravated by the short school year 
and irregular attendance. Naturally, the shorter the 
term and the poorer the attendance, the less accomplished; 
and the more studies attempted, the less achieved in 
each. 

In 1904, when the present course of study was first 
issued, the specially chartered or city schools were the 
only schools in the state that had an eight months' term. 
Of the 97 counties at that time, 30 had a school term of 
less than four months, 51 between four and five months, 
13 between five and six months, 1 between six and seven 
months, and 2 a school term of more than seven months. 
Attendance was also poor; in the cities, 71 per cent for 
white and 57 per cent for colored children, and in the 
rural schools 59 per cent for white children and 56 per 
cent for colored. Thus, city teachers in 1904 even in 
white schools had, on the average, approximately only 
121 days and rural w^hite teachers approximately 50 
days to complete an annual program calling for an aver- 
age attendance of at least 144 days.^ Obviously, the 



iln 1917, there were 4,681 schools with one teacher, and 2,147 schools with two 
teachers, together constituting 88 per cent of all the rural schools of the state. 

2This presupposed an average daily attendance of 90 per cent and a school year of 
160 days. 



26 Public Education in North Carolina 

course of study of 1904 was ill adapted to actual con- 
ditions. It was, in fact, little more than a goal to work 
toward. 

Judged alone by the length of the school year, the 
specially chartered or city schools should now be able to 
follow the state course of study. Rural conditions, ex- 
cept in special tax districts, are, however, still unfavor- 
able to this endeavor. Even in 1917 61 of the hundred 
counties had less than a six months' school. The recent 
constitutional amendment will help, and yet it will doubt- 
less be some years before any large number of the counties 
have an eight months' term. Unless a simplified course 
of study is prescribed, rural teachers will as a rule continue 
to face impossible conditions — be called upon, as they 
are, to attempt in six months what, it is officially acknowl- 
edged, can not be accomplished in less than eight or nine 
months. 

Those in authority were not unaware of how poorly 
the course of study of 1904 and its revisions met the actual 
conditions, but they did not feel that they could begin 
at the bottom and build up. With new-born enthusiasm 
for education, the people demanded schools, and common- 
ly supposed that one teacher, or certainly two, could cover 
the elementary and secondary field. To dampen their 
ardor by telling them that the simplest good high school 
requires at least three teachers, and that a single teacher 
with a four months' school term could not possibly give 
half of a good elementary education would have been 
perhaps too discouraging. Nevertheless, the state su- 
perintendent could not refrain from uttering a solemn 
warning against attempting too much. In his report 
for 1907, and frequently thereafter, he says: 

"The law now wisely forbids the teaching of any 
high school subjects in any school having only one 
teacher. It requires, however, the teaching of thirteen 
subjects in these one-teacher schools. It is absolutely 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 27 

impossible for one teacher, with as many children as are 
to be found in the average rural school in seven grades, 
to do thorough work in so many subjects. It seems to me 
that the number of required subjects should be reduced 
and that the teacher in every one-teacher school should 
be required to devote more time — in fact, most of the 
time — to teaching thoroughly these fundamental essen- 
tials of reading, writing, arithmetic, and spelling. It is 
folly to attempt the impossible. In my opinion, at least 
the first four years of the elementary school with only 
one teacher should be devoted almost exclusively to these 
four subjects, sandwiching in just enough of geography, 
mainly in the form of nature study, talks on everyday 
hygiene, etc. to give a little variety to the course and to 
furnish some foundation for a little more extensive work 
in these and kindred subjects later." 

Under present conditions it is not surprising that the 
great majority of the rural schools can not and do not 
carry out the state course of study. Their actual study 
program, while based on the state course, is extremely 
narrow, particularly in the one room schools. It consists, 
in grades 1, 2, 3, and 4, almost exclusively of reading, 
writing, spelling, and arithmetic; seldom indeed in these 
grades is there instruction in drawing, music, history, 
geography, physiology, or agriculture. The three R's 
are likewise prominent in the day's work of the more 
favored pupils who reach grades 5, 6, and 7; however, 
attention is given in these grades to geography and physi- 
ology, and a little to history, with an occasional reading 
lesson in agriculture. Cooking and sewing for girls and 
handwork for boys are almost unknown in the white 
schools, but a little in these activities is frequently at- 
tempted under the direction of the Jeanes teachers in 
colored schools. While a few counties are introducing 
medical inspection, and two or three have play directors, 
in most schools nothing is done for the physical life of 



28 Public Education in North Carolina 

the children. It is generally agreed that the state should 
provide for the children of the open country the advan- 
tages of a diversified school program. But the most 
competent to judge hold that it is impracticable to secure 
everything in the small rural school. The excellent new 
compulsory attendance law providing attendance officers 
will better conditions, as also would a longer school year, 
a simpler course of study and fewer grades, but these 
will never do away with the need of consolidating small 
rural schools wherever possible. 

Even the larger rural and city schools have difficulty 
in carrying out the present course of study. This is not 
due to the shortness of the school year — for the school 
year in such schools is usually eight to nine months — 
but, in the larger rural schools, to the irregularity of 
attendance, and, in the city schools, more particularly 
to the shortness of the school day in the three lower 
grades. Principally for these reasons, even in the larger 
rural and city schools the first three grades rarely include 
more than reading, spelling, language, wi'iting, and arith- 
metic, with a little singing and drawing. 

More than this might reasonably be expected of the 
cities but for the shortened school day in the lower grades. 
A single long session of three and a half to four and a half 
hours, with thirty or forty minutes at jioon for luncheon 
at school, does not suffice for more.^ A school day of 
this length and character is objectionable, first on physical 
grounds, because it violates well established laws of health 
and of physical development, and second, on educational 
grounds, because it makes impossible, owing to the lack 
of time, a modern primary program, including besides 
the fundamentals, music, free play, physical education, 
handwork, and elementary school science. 

J^The average instruction time, in minutes, for the several grades in 52 of the 
136 specially chartered districts was, in 1919-1920, as follows: 1st grade, 213; 2d 
grade, 240; 3d grade, 265; 4th grade, 283; 5th grade, 287; 6th grade, 291; 7th grade. 





OLD TYPE MEDIUM SIZED RURAL SCHOOLS 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 29 

Reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic also make up 
the bulk of the upper grade instruction in both the larger 
rural and city schools, although considerably more time 
is given in the larger schools to physiology, geography, 
and history, and occasionally something worth while is 
done in agriculture. In a few drawing receives commend- 
able attention; in still fewer manual training is provided 
for boys and cooking and sewing for girls — more fre- 
quently, however, in colored than in white schools. Free 
play and physical education are neglected, with some 
notable exceptions, among which are Asheville, Winston- 
Salem, and Wilmington. 

Pupil Progress in the Elementary School 

How successful the elementary schools are in carrying 
out their narrow and formal course of study will be con- 
sidered in the chapter on instruction. In this connection 
we must point out the immediate conseqiience of a short- 
ened school year and poor attendance when promotion is 
based on standards that presuppose good attendance 
during a longer term. Obviously, large numbers of pupils 
must, under these conditions, fail to pass. They there- 
fore either drop out of school or repeat the grade in 
which they fail. 

If children entered school at about six years of age, 
and advanced regularly, there would be almost as many 
children in one grade as another, and all the children 
in the same grade would be about the same age. As a 
matter of fact, approximately a third of all the children 
in our rural white elementary schools are in the first grade, 
and approximately a half in grades 1 and 2 J The ages 
of a -single class in these grades often range from kinder- 



iThe r ural school enrollment by grades for the state is not available. We have 
this for four counties. For the age-grade distribution of Guilford County, see 
page 30. 



30 



Public Education in North Carolina 



garten to first year high school. For example, one primary 
class was made up as follows : 

2 children six j^ears of age 

children seven years of age 

children eight years of age 

children nine years of age 

children ten years of age 

child eleven years of age 

child twelve years of age 

child thirteen years of age 
The congestion of children in the lower grades, and 
the striking difference in the ages of children in the same 
grade, clearly demonstrate that children do not pass 
smoothly through the schools, going at regular annual 
intervals from one grade to the next. They mostly re- 
main in each of the three lower grades two and sometimes 
three years, and it is not uncommon for the children to 
spend two or three years in a higher grade. 

How far in the school rural white children on the aver- 
age actually advance it is impossible to state with cer- 
tainty. The data at hand^ suggest that approximately 



* Age-Grade Distri 


=!UTiON OF Whiie Pupils in 


Guilford 


County 


J UNI 


, 1920 




AGES 




Grade 


5 
23 

23 
23 


6 

465 
4 

1 

470 
470 


7 

463 
61 
6 

530 
530 


8 

341 

207 
70 

7 
1 

626 
626 


9 

174 
168 
149 
63 
6 

560 
560 


10 

91 
117 
185 
128 

50 
5 

576 
576 


n 

37 
54 
105 
176 
124 
38 
2 

536 
536 


12 

21 
34 
74 
125 
132 
98 
25 

509 

1 

1 
510 


13 

12 
17 
42 
77 
87 
124 
56 

415 

10 

1 

11 

426 


14 

2 
14 
13 
29 
45 
93 
68 

264 

20 
5 

1 

26 
290 


15 

3 

2 
6 
13 
18 
55 
67 

164 

24 
7 
4 

35 

199 


16 

1 

1 

5 

6 

29 

48 

90 

31 

29 

4 

3 

67 

157 


17 

1 
1 

2 
8 
23 

35 

29 
19 
12 

7 

67 
102 


18 

1 
1 

4 
9 

15 

3 
10 

7 
10 

30 

45 


19 

1 
4 

5 

4 
1 
5 
5 

15 

20 


20 

2 
2 

1 
2 
6 

9 

11 


21 

1 
7 

8 



8 


Total 


1 


1 634 


2 


680 


3 


f>!\?, 


4 


623 


5 


m 


6 


455 


7 


304 


Total Elementary 


4.820 


IstHigh 


122 


2d High 


73 


3d High 


36 


4th High 


38 


Total High 


269 


Grand Total 


5,089 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 31 

50 per cent of them never go beyond the sixth grade. 
That is, about half the children miss altogether the richer 
portions of the school program, including literature, 
advanced geography, history — studies that make for per- 
sonal and civic ideals. Their entire school life is thus 
spent in the mastery of the mere technique of reading, 
writing, and arithmetic, and even this they accomplish 
sometimes with so little success that after a few years 
out of school some may be classed as illiterates. 

Conditions in the cities are better, but even in the cities 
there is sad irregularity in pupil advancement. For ex- 
ample, in June, 1919, some thirteen year old white chil- 
dren were found in the first grade, while others of the same 
age had reached the third year of high school — a gross 
difference of nine years in school progress among children 
of the same age. In fact, the 3,934 thirteen year old 
children of the larger cities of the state were, in June, 
1919, scattered among the different grades as follows: 

21 in the the first grade 
45 in the second grade 
137 in the third grade 
285 in the fourth grade 
689 in the fifth grade 
1,042 in the sixth grade 
1,056 in the seventh grade 
552 in the first year of high school 
101 in the second year of high school 
6 in the third year of high school 

If these thirteen year old children had all entered 
school at the same age and had advanced regularly, 
none of them would be below the seventh grade; as it is, 
over half of them are below that grade. 

M the same time 14,750, or 37 per cent of the entire 
elementary school enrollment of the larger cities, were 
behind the grade they should be in for their age. Of 



32 Public Education in North Carolina 

1042 '^^^ 




21 

I E HI 

Figure 4 
Distribution of White Thirteen Year Old Children of Cities, by Grades 

these, 7,745 were behind one grade; 4,110, two grades; 
1,805, three grades; 744, four grades; and 346, five or 
more grades. ^ In their discouragement, they leave school 
altogether; approximately 25 per cent of all the children 
of the larger cities drop out before they are fourteen years 
old, and approximately 35 per cent never go beyond the 
sixth grade; they therefore enter on the duties and obli- 
gations of personal and civic life in command only of the 
rudiments of the three R's. 

With approximately half of the white rural population 
and approximately a third of the white city popula- 
tion with a sixth grade education or less, and this, as we 
shall see, of poor quality, we face a serious situation, call- 
ing for heroic action. The rural school year and the city 
school day should be lengthened; all children, rural and 
city, should be gotten into school as soon after six years 

^See table on following page. 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 



33 



of age as is possible, and kept regularly in attendance; 
small rural schools should be consolidated, and an ele- 
mentary course of study better adapted to prevailing 
rural conditions should be provided. 



The High School Course of Study 
The high schools are laboring under similar unfavor- 
able conditions. When, in 1908, the high school became 
a recognized part of the general school organization, there 
were in operation 132 county and 81 city or town high 
schools, a total of 213. Ten years later, 1918, the county 
high schools numbered 209, the city or local, 149, a total 



Age-Gr.^ 


DE Distribution 


OF White Pupils 


IN Thirty-five Cities, 


June, 1919 




AGES 




Gd. 




Total 




5 


6 


7 


8 


9 


10 


11 


12 


13 


14 


15 


16 


17 


18 


19 


20 


21 




1 


24 


3585 


2686 


1268 


523 


244 


139 


67 


21 


8 


1 














8,566 


2 




55 


1831 


2117 


1142 


600 


253 


122 


45 


10 


2 


2 


2 










6,181 


3 






115 


1606 


2051 


1198 


645 


329 


137 


49 


16 


3 


1 










6,150 


4 






8 


177 


1253 


1831 


1107 


654 


285 


119 


32 


10 


2 










5,478 


5 








4 


158 


1249 


1638 


1184 


689 


284 


107 


36 


5 


1 


1 






5,356 


6 










9 


125 


867 


1442 


1042 


543 


236 


70 


10 


5 


1 






4,350 


7 












7 


113 


746 


1056 


804 


456 


174 


50 


14 




2 




3,422 


Total 






































Ele- 






































men- 






































tary 


24 


3640 


4640 


5172 


5136 


5254 


4762 


4544 


3275 


1817 


850 


295 


70 


20 


2 


2 


- 


39,593 


1st 


































High 














8 


98 


552 


845 


735 


383 


151 


50 


11 


4 


2 


2,839 


2d 






































High 














1 


8 


101 


435 


611 


474 


180 


71 


16 


3 


3 


1.903 


3d 






































High 


















6 


69 


285 


442 


311 


103 


34 


3 


1 


1.254 


4th 






































High 




















8 


54 


245 


326 


171 


60 


19 


4 


878 


Total 






































High 


- 













9 


106 


659 


1357 


1685 


1544 


968 


395 


121 


29 


10 


6,883 


Gnd. 




Total 


24 


3640 


4640 


5172 


5136 


5254 


4771 


4650 


3934 


3174 


2535 


1839 


1038 


415 


123 


31 


10 


46,386 



34 Public Education in North Carolina 

of 358. There were, in addition, literally hundreds of one 
and two teacher elementary schools giving some high 
school instruction. 1 

If all these high schools were well maintained, well 
organized, and well equipped, the state would indeed 
be well supphed. But is it? Moved by community 
rivalry and spurred on not infrequently by an ambitious 
principal or teacher, each considerable community wants 
its own high school. Its school must offer as extended 
a program, attempt to do as much as any neighboring 
school, irrespective of obvious differences in resources, 
such as building facilities, length of term, number of 
teachers, and equipment. The result has been needless 
multiplication and the establishment of scores of high 
schools under unfavorable conditions. The establishment 
of high schools under unfavorable conditions is in itself 
not significant, for the way to begin is to begin; but the 
overweening ambition of high schools unfavorably cir- 
cumstanced is indeed a matter that demands attention. 

We do not wish to lay down the conditions that should 
control the establishment of high schools and what they 
should attempt. There are, however, well defined re- 
quirements, as respects length of school year and the 
number of teachers to be employed, generally recognized 
as essential to the satisfactory conduct of a standard 
high school, that is, a high school offering a four year 
course of study. As suggested by the state school author- 
ities and laid down later by the University of North 
Carolina, these essential requirements are approximate- 
ly as follows: a high school year of from thirty-two to 
thirty-six weeks, a four year course, and not less than 
three full time teachers. 

Few schools in 1908 could meet these standards, and 
only a few reported four years courses — five in the counties 



iThe high school inspector estimated the numhei in 1908-1909 at 800, and doubt- 
less the number is quite as large now. 





OLD TYPE MEDIUM SIZED RURAL SCHOOLS 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 35 

and nine in the cities and towns. In 1918, 127 in the 
counties and 98 in the cities and to\^Tis carried four year 
programs. Of these only 30 in the counties and only 74 
in the cities and towns had terms of thirty-two to thirty- 
six weeks and three or more teachers. While it is there- 
fore correct to report North Carolina as having a total of 
358 public high schools, there are in the entire state prob- 
ably not more than 104 capable of giving four years of 
satisfactory high school instruction, even though there are 
225 which attempt four year programs. On the basis of 
the accredited high school list of the University of North 
Carolina, 12 counties have both city and rural standard 
four year high schools; 3 counties have only rural; 46 have 
only city; and 39 counties have neither rural nor city; that 
is, 85 counties have no standard rural high schools. This 
woeful lack of standard rural high schools largely explains 
why the National Bureau of Education ranks North 
Carolina third from the bottom among the states in high 
school enrollment. Much progress has, indeed, been 
made in a decade, but there is a long way yet to go before 
the state can be said to possess a sound or adequate high 
school system. 

In considering the high schools, it should be remembered 
that each specially chartered district, until 1919-1920, bore 
the entire expense of its high school and its will was law. 
Each was free, if it so desired, to estabUsh a high school, 
to adopt its own course of study, determine the length 
of the course, fix the length of the high school term, and 
employ such high school teachers as it saw fit. Under 
this reign of high school freedom, all kinds of city and 
town high schools grew up. Some have two, some three, 
and some four year courses; the high school term ranges 
from twenty-eight to thirty-eight weeks, and 4 have a 
single teacher. 

Of the rural high schools, the state authorities have 
had supervision, until recently, of only those receiving 

92468 — 4 



36 Public Education in North Carolina 

state aid — the so-called county high schools. The reg- 
ulations imposed on these county high schools have had 
to do chiefly with their establishment and the granting 
to them of state aid. Owing to their rapid development 
and the many problems related to their establishment, 
it was impossible to supervise them closely, although 
as much as possible was done to regulate their organi- 
zation and to promote their efficiency. 

For the use of county high schools and for any others 
that might choose to adopt them, three courses of study 
were outlined: (1) a classical course; (2) a Latin-scientific 
course; and (3) a modern language course.^ These are 
all four year courses, calling for a thirty-six week school 
year. These outlines conform to good high school prac- 
tice and remain much today as when first prescribed. 

In undertaking to carry four year standard courses, the 
high schools of the state, whether county or city or town, 
were in about the same position as the elementary schools 
when they attempted corresponding standard courses; 
that is, the high schools were greatly disadvantaged by 
shortness of term, lack of teachers, and inadequate equip- 
ment. For example, when these standard courses, calling 
for a thirty-six week high school term, were first outlined 
in 1907, only 40 of the 177 public high schools reporting 
had thirty-six week terms, and as late as 1917-1918 only 
47 of the 358 could boast a school year of such length. 
Thus, through all these years, the majority of pubHc 
high schools have striven to do a third to a fourth more 
in a given time than is commonly undertaken, and they 
have attempted this, too, with pupils who have had only 
a seven year elementary training. 

Moreover, in most instances, the inadequacy of the 
teaching force still further lowered the quality of the 



^A country life curriculum and a farm life curriculum were subsequently pro- 
vided, to be used in farm life schools and in high schools that have agricultural 
and home economics departments. 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 37 

instruction. The state authorities suggested in 1910 that 
high schools with one teacher should not attempt more 
than a two year course. If no electives were offered, 
two teachers might undertake a four year program, but 
if electives were offered, three teachers were held to be 
required. In 1917-1918 almost a third of all pubhc high 
schools had less than two teachers. Yet few of these 
schools limited their program to two years; a majority 
carried three year and some attempted four year programs. 
On the other hand, very few two teacher schools fail to 
offer electives, so that we find two teachers generally 
attempting what state school authorities hold should not 
be undertaken by less than three. 

The Latin-scientific course is usually found in one 
teacher schools ; schools of two or more teachers generally 
offer both the Latin-scientific and modern language 
courses, while farm life schools and schools having agri- 
cultural and home economics departments follow either 
the farm life or rural life curriculum, and offer, besides, 
the Latin-scientific course. But whatever the course 
supposedly followed, outside of a half dozen farm life 
schools, a score of county schools having agricultural 
and home economics departments, and fifteen to twenty 
of the largest city high schools, all the rest teach in vary- 
ing proportion about the same things, chiefly Latin, 
English, mathematics, and modern languages, with some 
history and a little science. For example, in 1917-1918 
14,993 children studied Latin, as against 2,688 in Ameri- 
can history and 217 in North CaroHna history. At the 
same time 3,368 pursued French, as compared with 
3,820 in home economics, 1,037 in agriculture, 1,453 in 
physics, 656 in botany, and 108 in sociology. Greater 
emphasis on history and civics, on home economics, 
agriculture, and science — in a word, on the more modern 
and the more practical activities — is much to be desired. 
The colleges of the state have also a duty to perform in 



38 Public Education in North Carolina 

this connection, for much of the emphasis upon the more 
formal studies by the high schools is due to the character 
of the prevailing college entrance requirements. 

State authorities have not been unmindful of these 
unsatisfactory conditions. They have earnestly dis- 
couraged the organization of small rural high schools; but 
in these efforts they have been greatly handicapped, for 
the high school law of 1907 permitted the organization 
of county high schools on impossible terms. The local 
community had only to raise by taxation, private sub- 
scription or otherwise, $250 annually for instruction — 
to be duplicated by the state — and to maintain a seven 
months' high school term. On such simple conditions, 
as many as four so-called state high schools might be 
estabhshed in any one county. 

As a substitute for the small high school, state authori- 
ties urged the estabhshment of county farm life schools^ — 
a central high school to serve the entire county. At the 
present time there is only one such school in the state, 
that in Craven County, although there are a few others 
that serve a county-wide purpose. To the same end, 
the way was opened for the establishment of special de- 
partments of agriculture and of the household arts.^ 
Twenty-nine high schools in twenty-two counties now 
have such departments, and by reason of the Smith- 
Hughes funds available for industrial work the number 
will doubtless increase rapidly in the immediate future. 

A decrease in the number of small high schools is much 
to be desired. An efficient high school can not be main- 
tained at every crossroad; the cost is prohibitive. The 
time is undoubtedly at hand when every county should 
be laid off into high school districts, each large enough 
to warrant development of a high school with not less 

'The law permitting the establishment of such high schools was enacted in 1911. 

'^The Guilford County Farm Life School Law, making possible the establishment 
of such departments, was passed in 1911, and made applicable to all the counties of 
the state in 1913. 




Johnston County 







j^^ 


s ■ s 



Richmond County 



NEW TYPE MEDIUM SIZED RURAL SCHOOLS 



Courses of Study and Length of Term 39 

than five or six teachers. For boys and girls Uving beyond 
reach of a district high school, dormitories should be 
erected at a central school, thus offering at a minimum 
cost good high school advantages to all the children of 
the county. 

State school officials have also labored in other ways 
to improve the situation. In 1917 the high school law 
was so revised that it prohibited the granting of state 
aid to any rural high school having an average daily at- 
tendance of less than twenty pupils, and the amount of 
state aid above the minimum of $200 to be granted to 
any school was conditioned, first, on average daily at- 
tendance; second, on the number of full time high school 
teachers employed; and, third, on the grade and character 
of the work done — powerful incentives to improvement. 
The state board of education also evolved a compre- 
hensive plan for classifying rural high schools, so that 
each might know its ranking as determined by its re- 
sources and the quality of its instruction. The war, 
however, interfered with the execution of this plan. 

In the meantime, a new epoch in high school devel- 
opment has dawned. A supreme court decision of 1917 
made the high school an integral part of the public school 
system, so that high schools may be supported hereafter 
by public taxation in the same manner as elementary 
schools. Carrying out the spirit of this decision, all 
former distinctions were abolished in 1919 between state- 
aided or county high schools and other high schools, 
such as local, city, or town. The state now shares equally 
and alike in the support of all. The high schools are 
now also to have the entire time of the state high school 
inspector, attached to the state department of education. 

Sharing as the state now does in the financial support 
of all high schools, its supervisory authority should be 
exercised over all — rural, city, and town. High school 
instruction should be completely eliminated from one, 



40 Public Education in North Carolina 

two, and three teacher elementary schools; small high 
schools should be abolished and the development of large 
district high schools insisted upon; schools should be 
limited in their curricula on the basis of the length of 
term and the number of teachers employed, and they 
should be classified and ranked according to their re- 
sources and the grade and quality of their instruction; 
courses of study should be devised particularly adapted 
to the needs of rural children and to working conditions 
that obtain in the rural high schools. All high schools 
should use the same record system. The state should 
issue all diplomas, and these should show precisely what 
the pupil has done, and the rank and grade of the school. 
And the non-technical colleges of the state ought to pro- 
vide a general college course to which graduates of stand- 
ard high schools may be admitted without condition, 
irrespective of the particular high school course pursued. 



IV. THE TEACHERS 

GOOD TEACHERS are able to overcome partly 
even such great handicaps as poor buildings, 
inadequate equipment, short school terms, poor 
attendance, and ill adapted courses of study. The hope 
of a state lies, therefore, fundamentally in its teachers. 
If its teachers are superior, the work of the schools, even 
under adverse conditions, may be fairly satisfactory. 
If, however, its teachers as a body are ill prepared and 
inexperienced, then a state has little reason to expect 
efficiency. What is the preparation and experience of 
our teachers? 

The general situation is easily described. Of the 12,622 
white teachers and principals in service in 1919-1920, only 
2,549, or 20 per cent, hold professional certificates, that 
is, certificates showing satisfactory training for teaching. 
On the other hand only 245 of the 3,690 colored teachers, 
or 7 per cent, hold such certificates and can be said to 
be properly prepared for their work. 

However, any statement about the preparation of 
teachers should also take account of the actual grade of 
school work they have completed. After repeated efforts 
detailed information as to preparation and experience 
was procured from 9,800 out of 11,712 white teachers, 
and from 2,357 ^ out of 3,251 colored teachers in service 
in 1918-1919. 

Prepakation of Colored Teachers 

From the data sought, it should have been possible 
to determine the number of teachers who had not gone 
further than the elementary school, the number stopping 



iThe Jeanes teachers or colored supervisors are included in this number. 

[41] 



42 



Public Education in North Carolina 



with the high school, the number taking full normal 
school courses, etc. But in the case of the colored teachers 
the data obtained could not be satisfactorily tabulated. 
A teacher might report, for example, that she had attended 
college for a given period, but from the facts furnished 
we were often unable to determine whether she was in 
the elementary, the high school, or the college depart- 
ment; or she might report graduation, but we were gen- 
erally unable to tell whether this was from the college 
proper or from the preparatory school. 

Roughly tabulated, the returns from the 2,357 colored 
teachers reporting show their schooling to be as follows: 





Public 
Elementary 
School Only 


County 
Training 
Schools 


State 
Training 
Schools 


Private 
Schools 
in State 


Schools 
Outside 
the State 


Total 


Attending 


406 


10 


197 


667 


134 


1,414 


Attending 

and 
graduat'gi 




7 


148 


648 


140 

274 


943 


Total 


406 


17 


345 


1,315 


2,357 



From these data it appears that 17 per cent of the 
colored teachers have not gone further than the public 
elementary school, that 43 per cent have probably had 
more than an elementary schooling but less than a high 
school course, 2 that 35 per cent have had probably the 
equivalent of a high school education, ^ and that 5 per cent 
have graduated from schools claiming college rank. 



'Six reported graduation from the Agricultural and Technical College; 13 from 
Biddle; 73 from Shaw; 2 from Fiske; 15 from Hampton; 2 from Howard; and 
3 from Tuskegee. 

^This is on the assumption that teachers reporting attendance at schools other 
than public elementary schools have done work of high school grade. 

^This is on the assumption that all the schools reported, except those enumerated 
in note 1, are of high school grade. 



The Teachers 43 

Preparation of High School Teachers 
The tabulation of returns made by white teachers 
was also difficult. The 888 high school teachers reporting 
show education and training approximately as follows: 

Number Per Cent 

Part high school 16 1.8 

Full high school 45 5.1 

Part normal school 3 .3 

Full normal school 26 2.9 

Part college 259 29.2 

Full college or more 526 59.2 

Unclassified and unknown... 13 1.5 



HIGH 3CH00L | 

fULL ■■ ^5 

HIGH 5CH00L ■ 

f^ft.T I 3 

HOLHI^L SCHOOL | 

FULL ■ 2G 
HOtMAL SCHOOL 



I 



FULL ^^^^^___^^^-^^^_ ^2^ 

UHCLftiSlFIED fl 13 



I 



Figure 5 
Preparation of White High School Teachers 

These figures^indicate that 59 per cent of the high school 
teachers reporting had four years in college or more, 
sufficient, if bona fide college work, to enable them to 
meet the usual minimum standards for high school teach- 
ing. But 78 of those reporting four years in college are 
graduates of what are known as "B" or non-standard 
colleges, and have not had full college courses. If these 



44 Public Education in North Carolina 

non-standard college graduates are eliminated, it leaves 
North Carolina, on the basis of our returns, with 50 per 
cent of its high school teachers able to meet the usual 
requirements for high school teaching. We are, therefore, 
certainly within the facts in saying that at least a half 
of all the high school teachers of the state are without 
adequate preparation. At that, the high school situation 
is encouraging, for such a proportion of unprepared high 
school teachers, while lamentable, is not uncommon. 

Preparation of Elementary Teachers 

The returns from the elementary teachers show their 
education to be as follows : 

Number Per Cent 

Elementary school only 580 6 . 5 

Part high school 2,418 27.1 

Full high school 1,613 18.1 

Part normal school 324 3.6 

Full normal school 565 6.3 

Part college 2,222 25.0 

1 year 907 10.2 

2 years 827 9.3 

3 years 488 5.5 

Full college or more 793 8.9 

Unclassified and unknown___ 397 4.5 

The outstanding fact about these returns is the large 
proportion of elementary teachers who have received 
their training in college — approximately 34 per cent. 
This is unusual, but the explanation is simple. Colleges, 
particularly private colleges with preparatory depart- 
ments, have for years been relatively numerous, and 
many of them claim to prepare both elementary and high 
school teachers. It is thus natural that our teachers should 
enter the profession by way of the college, and not by 
way of the normal school — a reversal of common practice. 

From the returns themselves it would appear that 
almost a third of the white elementary teachers reporting 



The Teachers 



45 



are able to meet the usual minimum requirements for 
elementary school work, that is, they have had at least 
two years of normal school training or the equivalent 
time in college. Among these are included 565 reporting 
two years or more in normal school, 827 reporting two 
years in college, 488 reporting three years, and 793 



SCHOOL 1HL_ 


M J 8 








HldH SCHOOL I^H 


^^^^^^^^H 1^13 


NOLMa SCHOOL ^B 


J 2 4 


FULL ^^H 
"O^HAL SCHOOL HHH 


H J 4>5 




COLLtGL ■■ 


^^^H *^ ^ ^ 




TWO YEAiL m^M 
COLLEGL HM 


i^H 




run YuiL i^H 

COLLLGL I^H 


■ 4 8& 




FULL ■_ 
COLLLCiL ^^1 


■^H 793 


UMCLASSIFIED HM 
Preparation 


1 J9 7 

Figure 6 
of White Elementary School Teachers 



2418 



reporting four years or more. If, however, we analyze the 
preparation of the 565 teachers reporting two or more 
years in normal school, we find that only 167 of these 
have had really standard training, that is, normal school 
training based on graduation from a four year high school. 
Again, probably not more than 512 of the 827 reporting 



46 Public Education in North Carolina 

two years in college have had the equivalent in time of 
two years above a standard high school. 

But the length of the training of these elementary 
teachers reporting college attendance is not the only 
question involved; more important is the character of 
their training. Good elementary teacher training in- 
volves concentration on the subject matter and methods 
of teaching the common school studies — reading, spelling, 
writing, arithmetic, geogra^phy, history, etc. The time 
of college students is consumed mostly by English, ancient 
and modern foreign languages, and mathematics. Even 
if college students elect professional work in the junior 
and senior years, this has to do usually with teaching in 
the high school rather than in the elementary school. 
College trained teachers thus enter the elementary schools 
as a rule without adequate professional preparation for 
the work they undertake, so that they can not ordinarily 
be reckoned as well trained elementary teachers. 

But let us put aside all questions as to the ability of 
the ordinary college to train elementary teachers, and 
accept as meeting the usual elementary standards the 
793 reporting four years or more in college, the 488 re- 
porting three years, the 512 out of the 827 reporting two 
years, and the 167 of the 565 reporting two years or more 
in normal schools. These together make a total of 1,960, 
equal to 22 per cent of all reporting, that might be reck- 
oned as well trained. On this basis it would appear 
that approximately four-fifths of all white elementary 
teachers now in service are without adequate preparation. 
Of these four-fifths, about 43 per cent, or a third of the 
entire elementary teaching body, are woefully unpre- 
pared, having attended only an elementary school or 
having gone only a short way in high school. The great 
majority of this last named group are in the rural 
schools. 



The Teachers 47 

Experience, Tenure and Age of Teachers 

Our teachers are likewise inexperienced. Of the white 
teachers reporting a half have served less than five years, 
a fourth between five and nine years, and a fourth have 
been in schools ten years or more. Rural teachers are 
less experienced than city teachers. Of the rural teachers 
reporting, 54 per cent have taught less than five years, and 
20 per cent were in their first year, whereas in the specially 
chartered districts, only 36 per cent have served less than 
five years, and only eight per cent were teaching for the 
first time. Colored teachers are somewhat more ex- 
perienced than white teachers, and yet 11 per cent of 
those reporting were beginners. 

Our teachers are also extremely mobile, that is, they 
move freely from school to school, with the result they 
are seldom anchored at one place long enough to know 
either pupils or parents, or to become identified with 
the interests of the community. For example, 52 per 
cent of all white teachers reporting were in new posi- 
tions, which means, with only 18 per cent of them be- 
ginners, that approximately 42 per cent of all old teachers 
had taken new positions in 1918-1919. Rural schools 
as usual suffer most. Fifty-five per cent of the rural 
teachers reporting were in new fields, so that with only 
20 per cent of them beginners, approximately 44 per cent 
of old teachers must have shifted, as compared with 
approximately 35 per cent in the cities. It is, therefore, 
not surprising that only 10 per cent of all white teachers 
have been in their present positions five years or more. 
Colored teachers appear to move a little less frequently. 

On the other hand, we have few immature teachers. 
Out of the 888 high school teachers reporting, only 24 
were under twenty-one years of age, and all but 54lof 
the 1,518 city elementary teachers were twenty-one or 
over. As might be expected, the percentage of immature 
teachers is highest in the rural schools, but even there 



48 Public Education in North Carolina 

only 19 per cent of those reporting were under twenty- 
one. In the colored schools less than 10 per cent might 
be called immature. 

Teachers' Salaries 
There are three obvious reasons why approximately 
half of the high school teachers and approximately four- 
fifths of the elementary teachers are unprepared, and 
why the teaching body as a whole is inexperienced and 
unstable. The prime reason is the low salaries paid. 
Teachers' salaries are low everywhere, but those in our 
state have for years been almost the very lowest in the 
United States. Even as late as 1917-1918, the average 
annual salary of rural white teachers was only $276, and 
of rural colored teachers $140. At the same time city 
white teachers received annually on the average only 
$532, and city colored teachers $276. Even at these 
salaries, teaching to some was undoubtedly a serious 
business, but for the great majority it was merely a 
makeshift, to be followed until something better turned 
up. 

The legislature of 1919 attempted to meet these de- 
plorable conditions. The salaries of teachers holding 
county and city certificates (second grade certificates) 
were raised from $35 to $45, and the salaries of those 
holding state certificates were increased from 10 to 25 
per cent. Despite these increases, the salaries of most 
teachers remained pitiably low, particularly in the rural 
districts. For example, the average annual salaries of 
rural elementary teachers for 1919-1920 were as follows: 
white, $430; colored, $295. 

The salaries provided by the legislature of 1919 were 
neither sufficient to prevent the further depletion of 
the teaching staff, nor to induce young people to enter 
the profession. Far-reaching measures were necessary 
if the schools were to be saved from the impending crisis. 




Pitt County 




Polk County 



NEW TYPE MEDIUM SIZED RURAL SCHOOLS 



The Teachers 49 

The efforts of those in authority to meet this critical 
situation culminated in the legislation of August, 1920. 

This legislation is a long step forward. First, the 
salaries guaranteed are closely linked, in each instance, 
with prescribed academic and professional preparation. 
The longer and more specialized the training required, 
the larger the initial salary guaranteed. For example, 
holders of county and city certificates (second grade cer- 
tificates) are guaranteed only $45 a month, whereas 
properly trained elementary and high school teachers 
are guaranteed an initial monthly salary of $90 and $100 
respectively. 

Second, all teachers holding state certificates are guar- 
anteed for a period of four years after the first, an an- 
nual increase of $5 per month. These guaranteed an- 
nual increases, small as they are, along with the guaran- 
teed minimum initial monthly salary, will do something 
to hold teachers in service, and to prevent them from 
shifting from school to school. 

The Certification of Teachers 
The prevailing way of certificating teachers has also 
contributed to the present unpreparedness of the teaching 
body. A certification system, well devised and executed, 
can do much, by holding right standards before teachers, 
to stimulate proper preparation. But with salaries low, 
with little distinction in pay or otherwise between the 
trained and the untrained, with teachers scarce, our cer- 
tificating authorities have been able to do little to foster 
teacher training, while the conditions under which certifi- 
cates were issued minimized even the little they could do. 
Prior to 1917 there were 237 gateways to teaching. 
Certificates were issued by 100 count}^ superintendents, 
136 superintendents of specially chartered districts, and 
the old state board of examiners; and, of course, there 
were as many standards as there were certificating bodies. 



50 Public Education in North Carolina 

To correct this chaotic condition, the present state 
board of examiners and institute conductors was created 
in 1917. The bill creating this board was a compromise. 
The county and city superintendents were left supreme 
in the field of second and third grade certificates, thus 
keeping alive 236 different certificating authorities. The 
influence of these local authorities is great, for over a third 
of the entire teaching force hold certificates issued by 
them. To be sure, the state has for years discriminated 
in salary against holders of such certificates; neverthe- 
less, the relative number will doubtless be large for years 
to come. 

Despite the large proportion of teachers thus certifi- 
cated by local authorities, there is not now a single line 
of law or regulation governing the issuance of such cer- 
tificates; that is, laws or regulations prescribing the sub- 
jects in which examinations shall be held, periods of 
validity, and conditions of renewal. Each superintend- 
ent is a law unto himself. The result is that certifi- 
cates of these grades are often handed out by superin- 
tendents without even the semblance of an examination. 
When certificates can be had for the asking, obviously 
there is little incentive to thorough preparation. Quite 
properly the holders of such certificates are called the 
''lost third" of the teaching body, and they will doubt- 
less remain ''lost" until brought under the supervision 
of a central board. 

On the other hand, the law of 1917 gave the state board 
of examiners and institute conductors control of all cer- 
tificates above second and third grade. However, it 
was understood that holders of certificates from the old 
state board of examiners and all holders of first grade county 
certificates should receive new state certificates without 
examination. This "gentlemen's agreement" extended 
also to certificates issued by the superintendents of spe- 
cially chartered districts. Under this agreement the state 



The Teachers 51 

board has issued to the holders of all such certificates 
a state certificate of the particular kind and grade rec- 
ommended by the respective city superintendents. It 
was only just that holders of old state certificates should 
receive new state certificates of equal tenure and validity, 
but it was surely unwise to tie the hands of the state 
board of examiners, as was done in the case of holders 
of first grade county certificates and teachers in specially 
chartered districts. 

The new state board of examiners was thus gravely 
handicapped at birth, and it faced an impossible situation 
besides. A thoroughgoing certification system is effec- 
tive only when salaries are attractive. When salaries 
are deplorably low, the standards for certificates set up 
by the state board of examiners must of necessity be cor- 
respondingly low; hence, efforts that can be made under 
these conditions to elevate teacher training avail little. 

The board's opportunity to do a piece of constructive 
work came with the special session of the general assembly 
of 1920, and well did they respond. Basing their new 
certification scheme on the minimum salaries guaranteed 
by the new salary law, they laid down specific academic 
and professional requirements for each kind and grade 
of certificate needed in the entire school system. These 
requirements are defined in terms of work completed 
in school, for which credit is awarded toward graduation 
from a course regularly offered by the given institution. 
Once a teacher obtains a standard certificate, she is 
forever reheved from all further examinations or pre- 
paratory work. The former plan of allowing home and 
reading circle work to count on renewals and on raising 
certificates to a higher grade was abandoned. Non- 
standard certificates may now be renewed or raised to 
a higher grade only by actual school attendance either 
in regular term or during the summer. 

The new certification scheme is thus founded on well 

92468—5 



52 Public Education in North Carolina 

accepted principles, and is destined to exert a profound 
influence for good. In the first place, it sets before the 
people the academic and professional preparation needed 
by each kind of well trained teacher. To teachers them- 
selves it makes clear the specific preparation required 
to secure a given certificate. Prospective teachers, 
expecting to enter the elementary schools, will no longer 
study methods of teaching high school subjects, but will 
focus their attention on the academic and professional 
subjects prescribed for the particular elementary certifi- 
cate which they desire. Similarly with prospective high 
school teachers. Finally, the scheme incidentally points 
the way for both public and private teacher training in- 
stitutions. So little was formerly required of teachers 
that the institutions of the state generally undertook to 
train all kinds of teachers, with the result that teachers 
were rarely well prepared for any particular field. The 
new certification scheme does not lay down specific teacher 
training courses, but it does prescribe the general re- 
quirements of such courses. The effect of this will 
eventually be that each institution will concentrate upon 
the particular kind of teacher training it is best equip- 
ped to do. 

To carry this certification scheme to its logical con- 
clusion, the salaries of teachers for each grade of certifi- 
cate will, as we shall point out later, need to be made 
still more attractive and to be placed on an annual basis. 
Also, the certification of all teachers, even the lowest 
grade of city and county teachers, should be put in the 
hands of the state board of examiners. Thus to do away 
with the other 236 certificating authorities is the surest 
and quickest way to eliminate favoritism and chaos, to 
reach the present "lost third," and to elevate the entire 
teaching force. 

The mechanism provided for the operation of the new 
certification system is seriously defective. As now or- 





OLD TYPE LARGE RURAL SCHOOLS 



The Teachers 63 

ganized, the state board of examiners and institute 
conductors consists of six members, besides the state su- 
perintendent, and the supervisor of Negro and Indian 
normal schools, ex officio secretary. The $25,000 an- 
nually appropriated provides salaries for the six regular 
members; but little remains for incidental expenses and 
clerical assistance. The actual annual expense of 
the board approximates $30,000. A far more effective 
organization would be provided if a division of certifica- 
tion were created within the state department of educa- 
tion. At the head of this division there should be a 
director, who should be provided with an ample clerical 
force, and temporary help in the preparation and read- 
ing of examination questions. Such an organization 
would not only be more efficient than the present 
organization, but less expensive; at the same time it 
would free the remaining members of the present board 
for other important work, for example, the supervision 
of teacher training departments in high schools and 
county summer training schools, which are so rapidly 
displacing the old county institutes. 

Teacher Training Facilities 

Nothing can possibly take the place of liberal salaries 
and a sound certification system in fostering proper teacher 
preparation. Yet strong teacher training institutions, 
readily accessible, will increase materially the number 
of well trained teachers. 

Under present conditions, there are needed annually 
approximately 150 new high school teachers, and approx- 
imately^ 2,000 new white and 350 new colored elementary 
teachers, merely to take the place of those who yearly 
leave the system. These numbers take no account of 
the new county and city superintendents and the new 
supervisors annually required, and they would be greatly 
augmented if any consistent effort were made to reduce 



45 Public Education in North Carolina 

the present proportion of ill prepared teachers. On the 
other hand, it must not be forgotten that the teaching 
body tends to become more stable, as it is more highly- 
trained. 

If both state and private institutions are considered, 
the present high school teacher training facilities answer 
fairly well and could be made adequate for immediate 
needs. The State University should furnish at least 25 
high school teachers annually, and the North Carohna 
College for Women, 50. Seven private ''A" colleges 
having educational departments graduated from these 
departments in June, 1919, 71 students who expected 
to teach. Altogether there are now available approxi- 
mately 150 high school teachers annually, and doubtless 
this number will increase under the spur of higher salaries. 
Probably few of these graduates could at the moment 
meet the requirements of the highest high school certifi- 
cate in the new certification scheme. It would, how- 
ever, be a short step for most of these institutions so to 
strengthen their professional high school courses that 
their graduates could qualify for the certificate in question. 
Moreover, the ''B" colleges, for reasons to appear later, 
will doubtless train more high school teachers in the future 
than in the past. This will further increase the supply, 
even though these "B" college graduates may not be 
able to secure the highest grade of high school cer- 
tificate. The prospect for an abundant supply of well 
trained and fairly well trained high school teachers is, 
therefore, promising. 

The elementary teacher training problem is not so 
easily solved. In the past certain of the private colleges, 
particularly those of) *'B" grade, trained elementary 
teachers. Students doing chiefly regular college work can 
not now meet the requirements for high grade elementary 
certificates as laid down in the new certification scheme; 
such work counts to greater advantage toward a high 



The Teachers 55 

school certificate. In a word, under the new certification 
scheme, college students can obtain higher certificates for 
teaching in high schools than in elementary schools, and 
for this reason they will receive higher salaries as high 
school teachers than as elementary school teachers. The 
colleges will therefore tend to abandon elementary teacher 
training in favor of the preparation of high school 
teachers. Hence, private colleges are no longer to be 
counted among the elementary teacher training assets of 
the state. There is, however, one private institution 
which may be so counted — the Normal and Collegiate 
Institute at Asheville, which graduates about 50 ele- 
mentary teachers a year and has trained 165 elementary 
teachers now in the field. 

On the other hand, the state supports four institutions 
devoted wholly or in part to the training of elementary 
teachers — the North Carolina College for Women, the 
East Carolina Teachers Training School, the Appalach- 
ian Training School, and the CuUowhee Normal and 
Industrial School. To what extent are these institutions 
able to meet the elementary teacher training needs of 
the state? As pointed out above, the elementary schools 
now require approximately 2,000 new teachers annually 
merely to fill the places of those who drop out. All the 
teachers now in service, graduate and non-graduate, who 
received their major training in these state supported 
schools aggregate only 1,262. ^ These 1,262 teachers, 
the combined product of all these institutions for 
years, thus barely equal three-fifths of the new teachers 
required in a single year. Nothing could depict more 
clearly the utter inadequacy of the present provisions 
for the training of elementary teachers, unless it be the 



'Of these 755 received their major training at the North Carolina College for 
Women; 389, at the East Carolina Teachers Training School; 43, at the Appalachian 
Training School; and 75, at the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School. 



56 Public Education in North Carolina 

further fact that all these institutions together graduate 
less than 200 elementary teachers a year, scarcely a tenth 
of the number now needed. 

Within the last year several high school teacher train- 
ing departments have been established — twelve in all. 
Such departments usually take tenth and eleventh grade 
high school pupils and give them simple, practical in- 
struction in teaching as a part of their high school course. 
County summer training schools have also been generally 
organized, offering a six or eight weeks* course to pros- 
pective teachers. These are valuable means of giving 
beginners a little professional training, but both are 
probably temporary and are not to be reckoned as per- 
manent factors in elementary teacher training. 

Private schools play even a larger role in the training 
of colored teachers than in the training of white teachers. 
Thirteen of the thirty colored colleges and academies 
of the state maintain normal departments. Much of 
the work of these private schools is weak, but they are 
doing the best they can with their limited resources, and 
the state would be in a sorry plight without them. For, 
of the 2,357 colored teachers reporting to us, over half 
received in private schools such training as they have 
enjoyed. 

On its part, the state supports three colored training 
schools — one at Elizabeth City, one at Fayetteville, 
and one at Winston-Salem. These schools are all small, 
and, together, have in the field 295 former students, 135 
of whom are gradua,tes. They turn out annually about 
35 graduates, which is approximately one-tenth of the 
new colored teachers now required. ^ There are also in 
the state 18 publicly supported county training schools 



iThe state also maintains the Cherokee Normal School for Indians at Pembroke. 
While this school gives Indian teachers about all the stfhool training they ever 
receive, the school itself is merely a graded school, for rarely do pupils advance 
beyond the seventh grade. 



The Teachers 57 

for colored teachers. These schools aim to provide high 
school opportunities for colored boys and girls and training 
for rural school teachers. Although of very great promise, 
they are of too recent origin to have become a factor in 
training colored teachers. 

To summarize, our teachers are, as a body, ill prepared, 
inexperienced, and unstable. The reasons for this un- 
satisfactory condition are low salaries, a poor certification 
system, and inadequate teacher training institutions. 
The new salary law and new certification scheme are 
long steps in the right direction, but before conditions 
will materially improve, salaries for those having proper 
preparation will need to be still further increased, ex- 
isting teacher training institutions enlarged and strength- 
ened in ways to be pointed out later, and new ones es- 
tablished, particularly for the training of rural elementary 
teachers. 



V. INSTRUCTION 

GOOD teaching gives children the kind of knowledge 
and the kind of power that are constantly needed, 
in daily Hfe. It trains them to read, to spell, to 
figure, to observe, and to think. Unfortunately, most 
teaching is not of this quality. Most teaching leans too 
heavily on memory or rote work, and so tends to stifle 
rather than to develop the child's intelligence. 

For example, in our smaller schools, with rare excep- 
tions, teaching consists in assigning lessons in textbooks, 
helping children to pronounce difficult words and solve 
difficult problems, and hearing them repeat in a mechan- 
ical way what they can remember of the printed page. 
Rarely are questions asked that arouse curiosity or pro- 
voke thought, that illuminate t^e text by an appeal to 
experience, or that point out tbe value of what is learned 
because of its usefulness in life. The teaching in these 
smaller schools is thus on the whole deadening in its 
effect. 

In our larger schools — rural and city — there is here 
and there some excellent teaching, but, even in these 
larger schools, the majority of the teachers do little more 
than assign lessons and hear children recite. Many of 
these teachers do not lack the capacity to do better work, 
but being neither stimulated nor guided by trained super- 
visors they have fallen into routine and formal methods 
of instruction. 

With the teaching in our schools on the whole of poor 
quality, it is inevitable that the results achieved should 
be unsatisfactory. In fact, many children are now 
learning so little in school, particularly in the small rural 

[58] 



Instruction 59 

schools, that a few years hence they will have forgotten 
most of what they memorized and will quite properly 
be classed as illiterates. 

These somewhat sweeping and unfavorable opinions 
are the result of wide observation in the classrooms of 
North Carolina and other states. Fortunately, however, 
we need not ask the public simply to take our word as to 
the quality of the teaching in our schools. Written and 
other tests have been devised, by means of which the 
efficiency of teaching can be measured, and the efficiency 
of teaching in different places and under different condi- 
tions can be compared. In February and March, 1920, 
more than 10,000 children in different counties and cities 
of North Carolina were thus tested or measured. It is 
believed that the results from these tests furnish a fair 
sample of the kind of education now given by the public 
schools of the state. 

Four counties were originally selected in which to give 
the tests — McDowell, E >wan. Wake, and Pitt. The 
school officials consulted agreed that each of these counties 
was somewhat better than the average county of its re- 
spective section — Mountain, Piedmont, Central, and 
Tidewater — and that the results of the tests in these 
counties v^ould be somewhat better than the average for 
the state. To the four counties originally chosen Halifax 
was added later, as were also the cities of Asheville, 
Greensboro, and Wilmington. 

In order that our data might be complete so far as they 
went, effort was made to test the children in every ele- 
mentary school and every high school in the above named 
originally selected counties. Few even of the one room 
schools were omitted. ^ In the elementary schools the 



^In the giving of the tests, we enjoyed the co-operationof the state department of 
education, of the faculties of the University of North Carolina, North Carolina 
College for Women, and East Carolina Teachers Training School, and of county 
and city superintendents, supervisors, and others. 



60 Public Education in North Carolina 

tests were given chiefly in the fifth and seventh grades. 
The fifth grade was selected because large numbers of 
children drop out of school before or by the time they have 
completed this grade, and the achievements of fifth grade 
children, therefore, are an index to the preparation for 
life of children thus dropping out of school. On the other 
hand, the seventh grade represents the final year in the 
grades, and the achievements of seventh grade children 
accordingly represent the maximum product of the North 
Carolina elementary schools. In addition to the tests 
given in the fifth and seventh grades, a special reading 
test was given to primary children in a few city and county 
schools, and high school pupils were tested in reading, 
algebra, and Latin. 

Reading 

Reading is the most important skill that the elementary 
schools seek to impart. Therefore, in testing the achieve- 
ments of the schools, primary attention was given to 
reading. 

Reading in the Primary Grades 

To teach children to read is not only the main task of 
the first and second grades of the elementary school, but 
it makes large demands upon both teacher and pupils 
in grades 3 and 4. A public school system which achieves 
a creditable record in this crucial phase of its work is 
likely to do well in other respects also. To fail at this 
critical point means inefficiency in all more advanced 
instruction. 

As a measure of how well our schools are teaching 
children to read, a simple reading test^ was given in 
Raleigh to approximately 1,000 school children and to 
about 800 rural school children in one, two, three, and 
four teacher schools. First, second, and third grade 



The Achievement Test in Reading, Sigma I. By Haggerty and Noonan. (The 
World Book Company, Yonkers, New York). 








^ 




IT 



■t- ■- 




li 




i Hill ' 



OLD TYPE LARGE RURAL SCHOOLS 



Instruction 61 

children were tested. The results of these tests at Raleigh 
show good work in the third grade. The second grade, 
however, falls considerably short of the achievements of 
good schools in other states, and in the first grade the 
results are decidedly below what they should be. 

The poorest work was found in one teacher rural schools, 
where third grade children did little more than one-half 
as well as good second grade children should do, and 
where fourth grade children read little better than good 
second grade children. In the two and three teacher 
schools the results were slightly better. But satisfactory 
results are approached only in the four teacher schools, 
where third grade children approximate the normal 
achievement of children of this grade. Rural children, 
especially in one, two, and three teacher schools, are thus 
far below where they should be in reading ability; the 
handicap of their poor instruction will be lifelong, and 
it will be severe. 

Reading in the Fifth and Seventh Grades 

The ability to read and understand simple prose of 
the tjrpe found in school readers and in the textbooks 
on informational studies, such as history and geography, 
becomes increasingly important in the intermediate and 
grammar grades. Accordingly, a reading test^ was given 
to more than 5,000 children in grades 5 and 7. The 
following is an illustrative paragraph from the test, 
representing seventh grade difficulties, and the questions 
the pupils were expected to answer after having read 
the paragraph : 

Hay-fever is a very painful though not a dangerous dis- 
ease. It is like a very severe cold in the head, except 
that it lasts much longer. The nose runs; the eyes are 
sore; the person sneezes; he feels unable to think or work. 



iThomdike Reading Scale, Alpha II. 



62 Public Education in North Carolina 

Sometimes he has great difficulty in breathing. Hay- 
fever is not caused by hay, but by the pollen from certain 
weeds and flowers. Only a small number of people get 
this disease, perhaps one person in fifty. Most of those 
who get it can avoid it by going to live in certain places 
during the summer and fall. Almost everyone can find 
some place where he does not suffer from hay-fever. 

What is the cause of hay-fever? 

How large a percentage of people get hay-fever? 

During what seasons of the year would a person have 
the disease described in the paragraph? 

In order to meet this test, a child must be able to read 
and to understand what he has read — which, by the way, 
is just what he must be able to do when he studies his 
lessons in history, geography, or science. The results 
from the test show that the best work in reading is done 
in the larger cities — Asheville, Raleigh, Salisbury, and 
Wilmington — and the next best in the middle sized cities. 
But this so-called ^'besf work is itself poor, for the scores 
in both groups of cities and in practically every individual 
city fall considerably below the normal score for seventh 
grade pupils in an eight grade system. ^ In fact, our 
seventh grade city school children read no better than 
good sixth grade children elsewhere, and appear to be 
two years behind the standard reading achievements 
of children who complete an eight year program. The 
record for grade 5 in city schools is somewhat better, 
being only slightly lower than the standard score for this 
grade. 

But the worst conditions are found in the rural schools. 
In no case did any group of seventh grade rural children 
in any of the four selected counties equal the standard 
for grade 6. The seventh grade scores for all the 'counties 
approximate the standard score for grade 5, and the 
fifth grade scores are about equal to what third grades 



iln interpreting grade scores, it should be kept in mind that North Carolina haa 
a seven grade system. 



Instruction 



63 



•<* ^ (M t^ 

o' o o o 



IM C^ (M 

^ ^ d 






»c <o -* 

ai a>* o 



^^ 



lO lO »0 IC lO lO 



Is 






^ H o 



CO CO O T^ -^tl lO 

■*' V V lO us' lo" 



= t^ t 



<M (M <M C^q »H 



o e<) i-H t^ 









S 


1 



ja ja ja J3 

o o o o 

^ c3 c3 c^ 

<U o <U (U 

E-1 H E-i H 



J 



CO 



64 Public Education in North Carolina 

should make. In general, therefore, the reading capacity 
of fifth and seventh grade rural pupils is fully two years 
below the achievement of good fifth and seventh grade 
city schools in general, and one year or more behind the 
achievement of the children of corresponding grades in 
the better city schools of North Carolina. 

The case, however, appears even more critical when 
the ages of the rural children are considered. The me- 
dian age, or average age, of the seventh grade children in 
the larger cities of North Carolina is about thirteen and 
a half years. Pupils in the corresponding grade in one, 
two, and three teacher rural schools are almost two years 
older. To put it differently, the 217 seventh grade chil- 
dren examined in one teacher schools show a median or 
average age of about fifteen years and three months, 
which is approximately two years more than the median 
or average age of the 630 seventh grade children of the 
larger cities, and, besides, these same rural children are 
almost a year behind in reading. Combining these facts, 
it would appear that these 217 seventh grade children 
in the one room rural schools are at least three years 
short in their reading achievements of the children in 
our city schools. Where such conditions prevail, there 
can be little effective instruction in informational sub- 
jects, such as history and geography. The validity of 
this inference appears in the results for the examination 
in United States history to be described later. 

In light of the fact that 50 per cent of the rural school 
children of our state never go beyond the sixth grade, 
the overwhelming significance of the reading situation 
becomes clear. Men may differ about the importance 
of teaching young people the subjects of algebra and Latin, 
but there can be no difference of opinion among intelli- 
gent men as to the importance of teaching the children 
of our democracy to read the. English language. 



Instruction 65 

High School Reading 

While there is general acceptance of the importance 
of reading in the elementary grades, little attention is 
paid anywhere to continuing in the high school in- 
struction of children in the mastery of the printed page. 
Yet there can be little doubt that such mastery, or its 
absence, influences all phases of high school instruction. 
To test the achievement of our high schools at this 
critical point, a silent reading test was given near the 
close of the school year to more than 1,300 eighth grade 
pupils (first year high school). The same test was also 
given to more than 2,000 students in the upper high 
school grades and in the first year of a few of the standard 
colleges of the state. ^ 

When the results for our first year high school students 
are figured on the basis of the entire test, it is evident 
that they finish accurately less than 50 per cent of the 
test. It might appear that this low per cent of accuracy 
was due to the great length of the test, as students gen- 
erally were unable to complete the entire test in the forty- 
five minutes allotted. However, when the results for 
accuracy are figured wholly on the basis of the questions 
which the pupils attempted, the per cent of accuracy for 
these first year high school pupils is but little higher. 
When compared with the results from corresponding 
grades in schools outside the state, the North Carolina 
scores are always lower. The larger North Carolina 
cities scored 48.3 per cent of correct responses; St. Paul 
scored 55.4, Kansas City, Missouri, 59.4, and Boulder, 
Colorado, 64. 

The percentage scores for students in the second, third, 
and fourth high school years increase, partly, no doubt, 
because the poorer readers drop out of school or lag behind, 

^These tests, as arranged for the North Carolina survey, were new, and in order to 
procure comparable data, we had them given in certain other cities, notably Kansas 
City, Missouri, Boulder, Colorado, and St. Paul, Minnesota. 



66 



PuBiiic Education in North Carolina 



1 

s 

1 


.2 
>- 


^ 00 cfl m 
■*' •<*<* ui V 


t^ oo 




CO ^_ «o ^_ c^_ -^_ 
C<l" im' (>5* Co' -*" V 


§ 
5 




CO 00 ■<* <M MO 
CO •»»< T*< lO lo" lO 


Ui 

oo oo" 


11 


co_ t- o -H^ o o 
(>?' M co' V lo" >o' 


M 

02 


i 

> 


oo" Oo' CO* 
M lO lO «o 


v^ sO 


c3 


O >« i« O O lO 

§j' s s s' ^ ?i 


.s 
'-a 

•3 

3 


.2 
'S 

1 

> 


t^ CO 05 05 co_ 
CO co' co' co' t-' 


O "5 


c3 
^1 


g S S S ^ 5 

ui ui ui ui CO* co' 


Median Age 

of Pupils 

Tested in 

North Carolina 


Ui Ui Ui '^ CO CO 


t- 


oc 




Number of 

Pupils 

Tested in 

North Carolina 


t^ r^ t>- ^ (MO 

M CO ?5 CO CO S 




1 

1 


Jl 


CO 




oo 

11 


General Standard— Grade 
General Standard— Grade 



Instruction 67 

and partly because high school education improves read- 
ing capacity. What is true of the scores for the larger 
cities in these upper high school grades is correspond- 
ingly true for upper grades in the rural high schools. 
Even so, the 119 high school seniors in the rural high 
schools of McDowell, Pitt, Rowan, and Wake counties 
score less than do the freshmen in any high school reported 
from outside the state. What high school graduation 
from such schools means in terms of the mastery of 
knowledge it is difficult to understand. 

Spelling 

To find out how well North Carolina children spell, 
two lists of 20 words each were given to the fifth and 
seventh grades, respectively, in the school examined. 
The words for the fifth grade were as follows i^/orenoon, 
neighbor, salary, visitor, machine, success, honor, promise, 
busy, different, attention, education, director, together, 
service, general, lawyer, soldier, tobacco, treason. Those 
for the seventh grade were:^ immediate, convenient, 
receipt, preliminary, disappoint, annual, committee, archi- 
tecture, artificial, beneficial, colonel, contagious, development, 
familiar, financier, intelligent, opportunity, peculiar, per- 
severe, treachery. 

Fifth grade children in the larger and medium sized 
cities fell but little short of the grade standard (66 per 
cent). None of the rural schools, however, even approx- 
imates satisfactory results. The fifth grade pupils in 
one teacher schools spell, on the average, only 8 of the 20 
words correctly, whereas the standard calls for 13. The 
two and three teacher schools did somewhat better, but 
even the four teacher schools fell 15 per cent below the 
standard. 



iThese words were selected from Column R of the Buckingham Extension of the 
Ayres Spelling Scale. 

- These words were selected from Column X of the Buckingham Extension of the 
Ayres SpelHng Scale. 

92468—6 



68 



Public Education in North Carolina 



f 

1 


B 

Method 

of 
Scoring 




CO 



f2 








CO 




T3 M 
O S 

<J ^ *o 1 


5: S ?:" 


t^ 

S 


Is 


02 C2 CO 




1 


1 1 


i i g" 




1 - 


■*•«»<(>) 


t^ 

3 




^ ^ t^ 

;J -H CO 




1 

g 
J 




t^ »c 

§■ S S 


CO 




CO 00 rf 
c^ 5 § 


CO 


a -s 
1^ 


<M -< lO 




1 

£ 

£ 




00 05 00 


M 00 

t^ s 




r- 1— CO 


rf ^ 

§ S iS' 




^g 1 






1 


i 

ll 
1 


> 

s 

a: 




1 


1 

> 

i 

c 

C 


1 


c 

is 

1 





I II 

OS «- 3 

fe 2 •- 
■" if a 



£ I 

fa < 



Instruction 69 

The results for the seventh grade indicate that the 
words chosen for the test were too difficult. Neverthe- 
less, on the basis of the results derived from tests given 
elsewhere throughout the country, it was reasonable to 
expect that our city children would spell at least half of 
the 20 words correctly. No North Carolina school group 
equaled this expectation. In general, the city schools 
spell correctly less than 8 words and the rural schools 
less than 6 in 20. While the city schools achieve the 
best results even their achievement falls so far short as 
to prove the poor quality of the spelling instruction. 

Arithmetic 

Hardly less important than the ability to read is the 
ability to handle the fundamental operations of arith- 
metic. To measure the efficiency with which our schools 
teach arithmetic, fifth and seventh grade children were 
tested in addition and in multiplication. ^ The test con- 
sisted of a series of problems in addition and multipli- 
cation, beginning with very simple problems and advancing 
to more difficult ones. Nineteen problems were given 
in addition, and 20 in multiplication. The measure of 
a pupil's ability is the number of problems solved cor- 



iWoody Scales, Series B (Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia 
University, New York.) 



70 Public Education in North Carolina 

rectly in ten minutes. The following are representative 
of those in addition: 



2 


23 


$8.00 


$ .49 


3 


25 


5.75 


.28 




16 


2.33 


.63 








4.16 


.95 










.94 


1.69 






6.32 


.22 
.33 












.36 








1.01 








.56 








.88 








.75 








.56 








1.10 








.18 








.56 



The following are representative of those in multiplication 

3x7=- 50 8754 16 2}^xS^A= 

3 8 2% 



The normal addition score in November for seventh 
grade children in northern and western cities having 
eight year systems is 18 problems. The seventh grade 
children in larger and smaller cities of North Carolina 
tested in February and March made a score of 15 prob- 
lems, which means that they are about a year and a half 
below where such children should be; indeed, in no instance 
did the seventh grade children of any city reach the stand- 
ard for sixth grade children of good schools. As in reading, 
the best work of rural children was in the four teacher 



Instruction 



71 



SO" 



PL, 






13 



t^ O 00 "5 -H <M 

CO •*' >0 l>-" <m' (M* 



00 t^ O "5 

lO CO CO t^ 



■* o o >« "^ '^ 

CO O IC l>^ (M (M 



t^ '-I «o t^ ■* >« 

<£> t>.* oo' os' M* ci 



■* <-H o <^^ 



t^ o c^ 



rl us U3 'H tC Ti< 

2 : : : : r 
>> 

«5 i« lO -^ CO CO 



a - 

'S* <M CO 



^ U5 OS <M 



O 00 -^ »f5 



V a> a> o) 

-J3 -c J3 -a 

- c CO ^ So 

i| 



72 Public Education in North Carolina 

schools, where seventh grade children made a score of 14 
problems, only one problem below the score of the larger 
and smaller cities. The poorest work was in the one 
teacher schools, where the score was 12 problems, which 
shows that seventh grade children in these schools have 
little more than fourth grade ability in addition, when 
measured by the achievement of children in good schoolb. 

Similarly, in multiplication the seventh grade achieve- 
ment of children in the larger and smaller city schools is 
slightly less than the normal achievement of the sixth 
grade in good schools. In the one, two, and three teach- 
er schools, the seventh grade made scores only a little 
better than the standard score for grade 5. 

When, in connection with these scores in addition and 
multipUcation, one considers that in every grade the rural 
school children are one, two, sometimes three years older 
than they ought to be, the full meaning of the poor re- 
sults becomes apparent. Here and there a child of un- 
usual ability may achieve for himself what the schools 
fail to give him, but the great mass of children who 
leave these schools will go through life weighed down by 
their poor schooling. 

History 

Outstanding dates Uke 1492, 1776, and 1860, the names 
of men like Columbus, Washington, Jefferson, Lee, Grant, 
and Lincoln, and inventions like the cotton gin, telegraph, 
and locomotive represent to educated persons the course 
of events leading up to our present American life. Few 
will deny that the merits of. an educational system must 
in part be judged by the amount of such historical knowl- 
edge it imparts. Accordingly, about 2,000 seventh grade 
pupils were tested in United States history. Two types 
of questions were used — informational questions, and 
questions that required the child to employ his powers 
of thought. 




Jamestown — Guilford County 




BlADENBORO — liLADEN CoUNTY 



NEW TYPE LARGE RURAL SCHOOLS 



Instruction 73 

Although the state course of study calls for the sys- 
tematic teaching of American history as early as the sixth 
grade, it does not appear that our children have any gen- 
eral mastery of the subject comparable with their grades. 
For seventh grade children in Asheville, Raleigh, Salis- 
bury, and Wilmington fall very much below children in 
good schools elsewhere even on the informational 
questions. 1 The highest record on such questions was 
made by Raleigh, yet even there the score made by the 
seventh grade children is below the standard for the sixth 
grade. 

The results in rural schools were still more unsatis- 
factory, as seventh grade rural children did only about 
half as well as sixth grade children are expected to do. 
Think of sixteen year old boys who believe that Thomas 
Jefferson was the president of the Southern Confederacy, 
that Andrew Jackson invented the telegraph, and that 
the chief result of the Revolutionary War was the freeing 
of slaves ! 

The various types of schools did even less well on the 
thought questions. In no single school, rural or city, 
does the achievement of the children on these thought 
questions exceed the standard for the sixth grade, and 
the smaller the school the less satisfactory the results. 

Algebra 

As stated before, tests were also given in high schools. 
The results achieved in high school reading were re- 
ported in connection with the reading in the elementary 
schools. It remains to describe the results in algebra 
and Latin. Most of our high school students begin the 
study of algebra in their first year, and second year pupils 
are supposed to devote one-fourth of their entire school 
time to this subject. To measure the result of this very 

^Questions were selected from the Van Wagcnen Series of Standard Scales in 
American History. 



74 Public Education in North Carolina 

considerable effort, about 1,700 students were tested, in- 
cluding all the pupils who were studying algebra at the 
time the tests were given. ^ 

Owing to the different lengths of time that different 
groups had studied algebra, it was found convenient to 
tabulate and report them in six separate divisions, ac- 
cording to the length of time the pupils have pursued the 
subject. Judged by accepted standards, the algebra 
results, achieved in our high schools are far below what 
they should be. For example, children in the rural high 
sphools who have studied algebra more than a year 
achieved results in addition which should be achieved in 
from three to five months. Even in the larger city high 
schools students who have studied algebra for more than 
a year only slightly exceed the standard for pupils who 
have pursued the subject less than six months. 

City high school pupils do better than rural high school 
pupils in the solution of equations and formulas. How- 
ever, in neither case do the achievements in the solution 
of equations and formulas by students who have studied 
algebra from eleven to fourteen months exceed the scores 
of pupils in good schools who have studied the subject 
only from six to eight months. 

Whatever differences of opinion may exist with regard 
to the desirability of the extensive teaching of algebra 
in high schools, there will probably be general agreement 
that if algebra is to be studied at all, its fundamentals 
should be thoroughly taught. By some it is argued that 
skill in the fundamental operations may be sacrificed 
until pupils have acquired a real interest in what algebraic 
processes mean; but even the advocates of postponement 
would hardly argue that pupils should go on for six, nine, 
eleven, and even twenty months in the subject without 
a real mastery of the fundamental skills involved. 



iHotz's Algebra Tests, published by the Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, 
Columbia University, New York, were employed. 



Instruction 



75 



3 
1 


Equa- 
tion 
and 
For- 
mula 




eo 










■^ C~, A i c 








2 S 




S 


lllil 


t^ « 

0' »o' IC 




iJiili 


00 (M 

ui V >o' 




52; P-.E-- 


s § s 




5 
1 




-^ «o_ 

V to U5 




ijiiii 


05 M -*_ 
■*■ V 10' 






2 1^ 




1 

a 

o 

2 

Q 

i 


iJlll 


t^ OC 10 ^ — . 




ijilli 


>0 OS 05_ o_ o_ 
V .0* cc' 10 10 


OS 




s s 




00 

o 

<£> 

S 
1 


lllil 


(M CO 00 »-• >n -M 


t>.' 


iiiiu 


CO ic »o' "a" co' "5* 


00 




1^41 


i " S 




1 

O 




M ^ t>. CO t» 

eo' co' e<5* cc co* 


OJ 




co' <m' m* t^' f^* 




«5 


a ^ -So 


S 5 g 






s 

■a 


1 


! 03 

j i ^ .£ 


1^ 




1 

1 


' 



76 Public Education in North Carolina 

If children can not or do not learn to add and subtract 
quickly and accurately by algebraic methods, and if they 
can not easily solve simple equations and readily resolve 
simple formulas, there can be no mastery of the more 
difficult algebraic principles. North Carolina high 
school pupils do not even learn the elements of the subject 
as well as they are mastered by the better taught high 
school pupils in other states. 

Latin 

High school students were also examined in Latin. A 
simple examination in this subject was given to about 
500 students who had studied it more than two years. 
The papers were graded by disinterested teachers of the 
subject who unite in pronouncing the results '' lamentable. " 
Only 23 per cent of those examined made a mark of 50 
per cent or better. If we take 60 per cent as the passing 
mark, only 14 per cent passed the examination. It is 
obvious that the teaching is extremely inefficient, partly, 
no doubt, because so many teachers are untrained, partly, 
also, because the high schools are forced by colleges and 
universities to attempt more work than students or teach- 
ers can successfully perform. There must be better 
teachers of course, but the colleges must co-operate with 
the schools by so scaling down their requirements that 
they can be honestly and efficiently met. A less pre- 
tentious requirement, more adequately met, will raise, 
not lower, the standards and ideals of both high schools 
and colleges. 

Larger School Units 

The results of the tests, particularly in the elementary 
schools, show clearly the beneficial effects of large schools. 
The large schools not only achieved higher scores for the 
several grades in the subjects tested, but they move their 
children along through the grades more regularly, so 



Instruction 77 

that thirteen year old children in our city systems are 
from two to three years beyond children of like age in 
our smaller rural schools. Such facts point to only one 
conclusion — viz., that the cities and towns have better 
schools. 

The truth of this conclusion is evident in the results 
achieved in the rural schools of various sizes. The aver- 
age age of seventh grade pupils in one teacher schools is 
about fifteen years and three months, which is approxi- 
mately one year greater than the average age of seventh 
grade pupils in four teacher schools. The scores of 
these two groups in reading are practically the same, 
which means, when age is taken into consideration, that 
the one teacher schools have failed by as much as one 
year in doing as well by their pupils as the four teacher 
schools. The same story is repeated in addition, multi- 
plication, spelling, and United States history. 

The difference between the achievements of rural school 
and city school children, and between the large and small 
rural school children is, of course, not only a result of 
better gradation and better instruction, but is also due 
to the greater length of the school year and more regular 
attendance. As previously pointed out, city schools 
have a school year ranging from eight and a half to nine 
months; many of the larger rural schools have a school 
year of similar length, but in one room schools, until the 
present year, the term has been only four and a half 
months — it is now six months. Obviously, it is impossible 
for teachers in the smaller rural schools to do, with less 
regular attendance, as much for their children in six 
months as the teachers in the larger rural and city schools 
do for their children in eight to nine months. 

The superior results achieved in the larger elementary 
schools, both rural and city, are an unanswerable argument 
for school consolidation. The full value of consohdation 
begins to be reahzed only in schools employing four or 



78 



Public Education in North Carolina 



5w- 



C«5 •«< CO 



^ t^ <M 



(M O -^ 



s . s 

Q S ^ 

£ ^ I"? 

S 2, "* S3 -S 



Instkuction 79 

more teachers, though even the two and three teacher 
schools possess certain advantages over the one room 
school. In a state like ours there will always be a large 
number of one room rural schools, and these should be 
made as efficient as possible. But every effort should 
be exerted to consolidate these small schools into large 
units, and the unit aimed at should not be less than four 
teachers. 

What is true of elementary schools is equally true of 
high schools. The results of all our tests point unmistak- 
ably to the advantage of the large high school, which 
makes possible the employment of better teachers, the 
better classification of children, and the development of 
a more effective school life. Just as we should, as far as 
possible, eliminate the small rural elementary school 
through consolidation, so we should eliminate the small 
rural high school by similar process. Indeed, it might 
well be argued that high school consohdation is even 
more necessary than elementary school consolidation; 
for a small elementary school, though undesirable 
and relatively inefficient, can and must occasionally 
be resorted to. But a small high school simply can not 
be efficient; one or two teachers can not be provided with 
the facilities required for high school work, nor can so 
small a number of teachers carry the varied load of in- 
struction contained within even an unpretentious high 
school curriculum. Fortunately, high school consoli- 
dation is in some respects a comparatively simple matter; 
the pupils, being older, can be transported longer dis- 
tances, and can even board at centrally located county 
institutions. 

To summarize, our study of the quahty of instruc- 
tion now offered in the public schools of North Carolina 
confirms the impression made by the study of the separate 
items that go to constitute a public school system. We 
have admitted ungrudgingly the great progress made in 



80 Public Education in North Carolina 

a brief period. None the less, as things now stand, despite 
all that has been accomplished, the state possesses the 
outline or skeleton of a school system rather than a de- 
veloped school system. Buildings are still mainly poor, 
teachers are still mainly untrained, financial support is 
still inadequate, supervision is still ineffective. It follows, 
as the present chapter shows, that instruction is, in general, 
of inferior quality. In elementary schools, as in high 
schools, pupils do not learn thoroughly the fundamental 
things which the schools are designed to teach; the results, 
compared with the results obtained elsewhere in the 
United States — whether cities, towns, or rural districts — 
are uniformly to the disadvantage of North Carolina. 



PART II 

HINDRANCES TO DEVELOPMENT 

CHAPTERS VI-VII 



(811 



VI. ADMINISTRATIVE HANDICAPS 

WE have been engaged thus far in describing the 
schools as they are; it is next in order to con- 
sider the steps to be taken to improve them. If, 
however, we turn aside and consider a few of the major 
hindrances that have retarded school progress, we shall 
be better able to appreciate the reasons for some of the 
conditions that now exist and we shall also be better 
able to appreciate the need of certain changes in the 
constitution and laws of the state affecting the admin- 
istration and organization of the schools. Among the 
hindrances to be considered in this chapter are the han- 
dicaps on effective administration. 

The administrative handicaps on our public school 
system spring, in the first instance, from the educational 
provisions of the state constitution. The schools operate 
under the constitution of 1876, as amended. This places 
on the general assembly the responsibility of providing 
a uniform and free system of public schools. If the con- 
stitution of 1876 had also safeguarded the perpetuity 
and inviolability of the Literary Fund, and then stopped, 
it would have conformed to the best present day practice. 
But like most constitutions of that time, it did not stop 
w^ith these provisions. It provided, in addition, for an 
ex officio state board of education, composed of the gover- 
nor, lieutenant-governor, secretary of state, treasurer, 
auditor, superintendent of pubhc instruction, and attorney 
general, with the governor as president, and the state 
superintendent as secretary, of the board, arid for the 
election of the state superintendent of public instruction 
at the same time and in the same manner as other state 
officers. Like other officers similarly elected, the state 
superintendent is an executive of the state and a member 
of the council of state. 

[83] 
92468 — 7 



84 Public Education in North Carolina 

It is not surprising that the convention of 1876 thought 
an ex officio board would answer as the centrahzing aind 
directive head of the pubUc schools, for it was difficult, 
to say the least, in 1876 to foretell the demands of the 
schools in 1921. Nor is it surprising that the powers 
of the board were not clearly defined, for the proper 
powers of such a board were then little understood. 
Whatever the full scope of the powers conferred, they 
extend in two separate, though related, directions : first, 
over the operation and conduct of the schools themselves, 
and, second, over the management and administration 
of the state educational fund. For the board is vested 
with '*^full power to legislate and make all needful rules 
and regulations in relation to free public schools and the 
educational fund of the state." At the same time, the 
board is Hmited in the exercise of its ''full power, " because 
it is made responsible and subordinate to the general 
assembly — ''all acts, rules and regulations of said board 
may be altered, amended, or replaced by the general 
assembly." 

Accordingly, the general assembly has never hesitated 
to add to or subtract from the powers actually exercised 
by the state board of education. This is illustrated in 
the management of the Literary Fund. From the very 
beginning the general assembly prescribed the type of 
securities in which the board should invest the principal, 
determined also the manner of apportioning the income 
therefrom among the counties, and in 1903 completely 
changed the use of this fund, providing that the income 
therefrom should no longer be distributed among the 
counties for current school expenses, but that both prin- 
cipal and interest should thereafter constitute a permanent 
revolving fund to be loaned to county boards of education 
for the erection of school buildings. 

The general assembly has pursued a similar policy with 
the educational powers of the board. Legislative pro- 



Administrative Handicaps 85 

visions for the selection of textbooks are typical. At one 
time the general assembly authorized the state board of 
education to prescribe these. Later it limited the power 
of the board to that of recommendation, afterward restored 
the power of adoption and later divided this with a sub- 
commission appointed by the governor and state superin- 
tendent, and, finally, in 1919, provided an independent 
body, to be appointed by the state superintendent, to 
choose textbooks for high schools. 

In the exercise of its authority, the general assembly 
has apparently had due regard for what would seem to 
be the board's constitutional powers over the state educa- 
tional fund, but it has not sho^vn similar consideration 
for what would seem to be the board's constitutional 
rights in the management of educational affairs. New 
administrative officers and boards are created, now in- 
dependent of, now subordinate to, the state board. For 
example, the state board of education is authorized to 
prescribe rules and regulations for conducting schools 
to teach adult illiterates and to spend annually not more 
than $5,000 in the organization and administration of 
this work under the direction of the state superintendent. 
In contrast, the state board of vocational education is 
an independent creation, exercising large powers: it 
prescribes courses of study, certificates teachers, and 
expends public money. The college commission regulat- 
ing degrees is likewise an independent body, as is also 
the high school textbook commission, and the commission 
on instruction in agriculture, manual training, and home 
economics. The board of trustees of the Appalachian 
Training School is not only an independent, but a self- 
perpetuating body. On the other hand, the state board 
of education appoints the trustees of the Cherokee Indian 
Normal School, the East Carolina Teachers Training 
School, and, with the advice and consent of the senate, 
those of the State College for Women and the Cullowhee 



86 Public Education in North Carolina 

Normal and Industrial School. The state board of ex- 
aminers and institute conductors is a unique complex. 
The state superintendent is an ex officio member and 
president, and the superintendent of Negro normal schools 
and the Cherokee Indian Normal School and super- 
visor of teacher training is ex officio secretary; the governor 
appoints six regular members. The state board fixes the 
salaries of the several regular members on the recom- 
mendation of the executive committee of the North 
Carolina Teachers Assembly, and the state board msLj 
dismiss them for cause, with right of appeal to the courts. 

This variable policy on the part of the general assembly 
has had a twofold effect. On the one hand, it has pre- 
vented the development in the state board of education 
of a strong sense of stewardship and a keen sense of re- 
sponsibility for the schools; the board has performed such 
duties as the law imposed, but our schools have never 
felt the unifying and directive influence of a determined, 
progressive board at their head. 

The fact that the board is ex officio has probably pre- 
vented the general assembly from giving it adequate 
and appropriate powers. Its members are without ex- 
ception state officers, elected on a party platform, and 
committed to an administration program. Moreover, 
with the specific duties of their respective offices to per- 
form, it is difficult for them to give the needed time and 
thought to the solution of the intricate problems involved 
in the creation and general management of a compre- 
hensive state school system. 

The unstable character of an ex officio board counts 
also against it. In order to secure stability and continuity 
of poHcy, the membership of a board of education should 
be liable only to gradual change. The danger is always 
present that the membership of the present board, in- 
cluding the state superintendent, may change completely 
and abruptly at the end of each four years, thus opening 



Administrative Handicaps 87 

the way for passing political upheavals to influence or 
alter the educational policies of the state. ^ 

For these and other reasons, the state constitution 
should be so amended as to permit the general assembly 
to create a state board of education free from such defects 
and dangers. In the meanwhile, the fullest use should 
be made of the present board. 

Again, the ever-changing pohcies of the legislature 
have resulted in such a confusion of unrelated activities 
and boards as to render effective administration extremely 
difficult. There are now, as has been stated, a half dozen 
unrelated and independent bodies, each heading some 
part of the system, each working in its own way in the 
management of an enterprise that, in the last analysis, 
depends for success upon unity of aim and program. 

One illustration — the high schools — will suffice to 
make clear the confusion and division of authority. Until 
1919, the state board of education prescribed the rules 
and regulations for establishing and maintaining the so- 
called state high schools. Now the board only apportions 
state funds to them. The state superintendent prescribes 
rules and regulations as to organization and courses of 
study, and, along with a commission appointed by him- 
self, selects the textbooks. The state board of vocational 
education has charge of vocational instruction, while 
another commission prescribes general courses for agri- 
culture, manual training, and home economics. The 
state board of examiners certificates the teachers. And, 
finally, the high schools are inspected by an official ap- 
pointed by the state superintendent. 

With no single body legally responsible for the schools 
as a whole, and rarely for any one entire field of activity, 
a unified pohcy can not be devised or pursued. The 



^The fact that within recent yearsthe same officials have been repeatedly returned 
to office has prevented the state from appreciating this danger; the danger never- 
theless exists. 



88 Public Education in North Carolina 

schools will continue to suffer under this handicap until 
all the agencies sharing authority with the state board 
are abolished, and the state board becomes, as would 
seem to be the intent of the constitution, the unifying, 
directive head of the system. 

There is a further handicap to be considered — divided 
administrative leadership. The constitutional provisions 
for a state board of education and for a superintendent 
of public instruction would seem to imply that the state 
superintendent is to be the executive officer of the state 
board and the responsible administrative head of the 
pubhc schools. The general assembly has, however, 
not endowed the state superintendent with such powers 
and authority. 

His election by popular vote may have caused the 
general assembly to hesitate. Certainly, the increasing 
complexity of public education, its increasing cost, the 
growing amount of technical experience and knowledge 
required for scientific administration have rendered pro- 
gressively unsatisfactory the selection of a state superin- 
tendent by popular election. The office is now and 
always has been open to any respectable citizen, irrespec- 
tive of educational quahfications. Moreover, to place 
the state superintendent on the same platform as other 
state officials, bind him to party pledges, and make him 
a member of the council of state, identities him with 
active politics, and endangers the independent adminis- 
tration of the schools. The best man obtainable is none 
too good to fill so high an office. Appropriate safeguards 
should be thrown around it, and the state superintendent 
should be free to administer the schools in the interest 
of all the children of all the people of the state, regardless 
of party pohtics. 

For two decades we have been spared the possible 
vicious effects of electing the state superintendent, but 
future experience may not be so fortunate. The present 



Administrative Handicaps 89 

state superintendent and his predecessor were both ap- 
pointed to fill unexpired terms; otherwise probably neither 
would have been a candidate. Experience has proved 
that appointment by a responsible board is far the surest 
means of securing and retaining a competent state super- 
intendent. In order to free the office from all political 
connection, and to secure the best man available, there 
should be eUminated from the constitution all sections 
relating to the election and duties of the state superin- 
tendent. In the meantime, legislation is required to 
define the necessary professional qualifications of the 
incumbent, and the salary of the office should be increased. 
A state superintendent has no other business or vocation, 
and can not afford to serve the state, however great the 
privilege and honor, if hving conditions compel him to 
spend more than he receives. A salary of $4,000, to say 
nothing of $3,000, is inadequate; county and city super- 
intendents frequently receive more. His salary might 
properly be doubled, and certainly should not be less than 
$6,000. For example, Maryland pays $8,000, and New 
Jersey, $10,000. 

These limitations surrounding the office of the state 
superintendent are not the only hindrances to effective 
management of our schools. As stated above, adminis- 
trative responsibility is now scattered among many 
agencies and boards. In certain instances the state 
superintendent acts as the executive officer of the state 
board; for example, in making loans from the state literary 
fund, in apportioning state school funds, in establishing 
schools for adult illiterates, and in school extension work. 
Quite as often, the law authorizes or designates another 
agent, as in the supervision of colored normal schools 
and the selection of elementary textbooks. In other 
instances, even though the state board manages the funds 
appropriated, activities are inaugurated, such as the prep- 
aration of schoolhouse plans for which no one is appar- 



90 Public Education in North Carolina 

ently responsible. Executive authority in those parts of 
the system not under the state board is similarly scattered. 
In some instances the state superintendent is authorized 
to act as an independent agent; for example, in prescrib- 
ing rules and regulations as to the organization and courses 
of study for high schools, for the conduct of rural libraries, 
and for the management of the Cullowhee Normal and 
Industrial School. In still others, he becomes the execu- 
tive officer of independent boards; for example, the state 
board of vocational education. 

Working through these several minor boards, as well 
as the state board of education, a forceful state superin- 
tendent may give a certain consistency to the management 
of the schools. At best, however, he is compelled to 
operate amid conditions that are highly unfavorable to 
efficiency. Nor can the disadvantages be completely 
overcome, unless these independent agencies and boards 
are stripped of their legal administrative powers and 
the state superintendent is made the executive officer 
of the state board of education, the responsible adminis- 
trative head of the system. 

Thus to centralize executive authority will not only 
insure a better administration of the schools, but will 
also simplify the administrative machinery. Independ- 
ent boards and agencies will disappear and their func- 
tions will be taken over by divisions in the office of 
the state department of education; the heads of divisions 
will be appointed by the state board of education and 
will be responsible to the board through the state super- 
intendent, its executive officer. 

To conclude, before the way is open for the most effect- 
ive type of state school organization and administration 
it will be necessary to eliminate from the constitution all 
sections relating to the state board of education and to 
the superintendent of public instruction, replacing them 
by a provision giving the legislature the power needed to 







! 




1' 


g^ . % 


^^^ilH 


^m^ 




1 

i 




ipliilU 


■^?^— *«#■— 








Hi^P 


■f SW., ; 




_-l 


.SBJMy J «.] 


Up 


Iff.i^ 


1 


P 


^ ' 











Hanes School— Forsyth County 




Spray — Rockingham County 



NEW TYPE LARGE RURAL SCHOOLS 




Consolidated School— Wake County 




Farm Life School— Craven County 



DORMITORIES— LARGE RURAL SCHOOLS 



Administrative Handicaps 91 

create the necessary instruments Meanwhile, many of 
the present administrative handicaps are due quite as 
much to statutory as to constitutional limitations. 
Even as the constitution stands, the state board of educa- 
tion can, through well considered legislation, be made 
the real head of the public school system, the state su- 
perintendent can be made its executive officer, with com- 
plete administrative responsibihty, and the office can be 
properly safeguarded and the salary increased, thus 
guaranteeing to the schools freedom from politics and 
greater unity of pohcy and effectiveness of management. 



VII. LIMITATIONS AND CONFLICTING 
DEVELOPMENTS 

THE CONSTITUTION of 1876, as amended, 
recognized the county as the chief local unit of 
school administration. The county commissioners 
were made responsible for maintaining schools adequate 
in number and conveniently located for at least six 
months^ in every school year. Their ''general super- 
vision and control" of the schools is, however, subject to 
the discretion of the general assembly. 

In the exercise of this discretionary power, and in the 
effort to comply with the constitutional mandate as to 
the minimum length of school term, political and economic 
conditions have at times led to compromises; a lack of 
supporting public sentiment has often delayed appropriate 
legislation or prevented it from becoming effective. Now 
one plan, now another has been followed. The result 
is a number of serious statutory limitations on school 
progress, and a number of cross-developments; for ex- 
ample, the development side by side of two mutually 
exclusive systems of local school administration, the 
county system and the district system. 

Tradition favored a county school system. In a fully 
developed county system, a single central board controls 
and supervises through its agents all the schools of a county, 
except those of large cities, and all property in the county 
is taxed for the support of all the schools of the county, 
to the end that all the children of the county may enjoy 
similar educational opportunities. This type of organ- 
ization has more and more come to be recommended by 
those who have seriously studied the needs of rural states. 



'Prior to 1918. four months 

[92] 



Limitations and Conflicting Developments 93 

In adopting a county form of school organization we were, 
therefore, wise and fortunate. But we have developed 
neither the financial nor the educational possibilities of 
such a system. 

For example, at no time has the county assumed full 
responsibility for providing all schools with suitable 
buildings and equipment.^ The township or the district 
has always shared in this responsibility. Prior to 1901 
the money raised by state and county taxes, along with 
other school revenues, and apportioned to the townships 
or districts, was supposed to be sufficient to care for current 
school expenses, such as teachers' salaries, fuel, etc., and 
also sufficient to provide suitable grounds, buildings, 
and equipment. But this was rarely the case. The 
money so apportioned was not adequate, in most instances, 
even to maintain the schools for the minimum term of 
four months. Indeed, in 1901, 74 of the 97 counties 
required aid from the equalization fund to bring their 
school terms up to the constitutional minimum. Since 
1901, county boards have reserved from moneys in hand, 
before apportionment, a specific proportion as a building 
and repair fund, but in no instance could they contribute 
more than a half of the cost of a new school building.* 

As the districts were not permitted to tax themselves 
for school purposes prior to 1901, ^ the needed local funds 
for school buildings were usually raised by private 
subscription. When this method failed, the school term 
was at times shortened, or school was abandoned alto- 
gether, and the local authorities used the county appor- 
tionment to provide needed schoolhouses. Since 1901 
approximately 2,000 districts have voted a special tax 

^The county board of education in 1901 assumed responsibility for sites or school 
grounds. 

-Happily, the special session of the general assembly in 1920 removed this limi- 
tation. 

^There was, however, a long standing law permitting townships to vote a nominal 
local tax, but few townships acted favorably. 



94 Public Education in North Carolina 

to supplement the county apportionment, but about 
6,000 other districts refuse to sanction such a tax, and 
reniain dependent on private generosity for their half of 
any building funds. Thus, the greatest institution of 
democracy — the public school — continues in three-fourths 
of the districts of the state on a semi-charitable basis. 
Under these circumstances it is not surprising that our 
schools are inadequately housed and poorly equipped. 

There is, however, a growing sense of the need of the 
county's assuming full responsibility for the material 
equipment of all schools. The legislation of 1901, per- 
mitting the county boards to reserve a building and 
repair fund, was a step in this direction; the legislation 
of 1911, permitting counties to vote a county- wide ad- 
ditional special tax, was a further advance; and the final 
legislative step was taken in 1915, when counties were 
authorized to vote county bonds for school buildings. 
But an aroused public sentiment is required to give effect 
to this legislation. To date, only three counties — 
Beaufort, New Hanover, and Wilson — have sanctioned 
a county-wide additional special tax, and New Hanover 
stands alone in voting a county bond issue to carry out 
a county-wide building program. 

In the meantime, help is promised from another source. 
A recent supreme court decision sustains the position 
of the Alamance county board of education, holding 
that schoolhouses are an essential part of a school. This 
decision covers repairs and additions to old buildings. 
Should it also cover new buildings and grounds, as inter- 
preted by the attorney-general, county boards of education 
can assume full responsibility for the material equij^ment 
of all the schools of the county, and secure the levy of 
the needed taxes therefor, if they are so minded, with- 
out submitting the question to popular vote. Whatever 
the final interpretation of this decision, this should be 
clear: Until county boards of education oftn assume 



Limitations and Conflicting Development? 95 

responsibility for the material equipment of all schools, 
the possibilities of a county school system can not be 
realized, and districts, lying side by side, will continue 
the one to have a model plant, the other, the poorest 
kind of a schoolhouse. 

There is another equally serious limitation on the full 
development of our county system. County boards of 
education are not authorized to assume financial responsi- 
bility for more than a six months' school term. A term 
of this length is inadequate. Thoughtful citizens of the 
state appreciate this fact, but the constitution in most 
instances estops county boards of education from financ- 
ing a longer uniform term without the approval of the 
people. The result is a wide variation in school terms. 
For example, in the cities, the average length approximates 
eight and a half months; in the 2,000 special tax districts, 
between seven and eight months; and in the other 6,000 
districts, six months for the first time this year, except in a 
few counties. These inequalities are of long standing and 
inflict a great injustice on the children of the less pro- 
gressive districts. To ehminate them, the general assem- 
bly in 1917 authorized the levy of a county-wide addi- 
tional special school tax, but, as stated abve, up to date 
only three counties have taken favorable action. 

On the other hand, the restricted financial powers of 
county boards of education have lent strength to two 
movements which further complicate the situation— 
the formation of special tax districts, and the organ- 
ization of specially chartered or city districts. 

Even in states having a highly developed county system, 
cities of size are generally organized as separate districts. 
The number of city or specially chartered districts in 
North Carolina is, however, unusual. Progressive com- 
munities chafed under the slow development of the county 
schools. To gain relief, they petitioned the general 
assembly for special school charters. Altogether, there 



96 Public Education in North Carolina 

are now 136 such charters alive, 27 of which were issued 
between 1875 and 1899 and 109 since 1901. These city 
districts range in size from Winston-Salem to three 
teacher centers. 

The charters of city districts differ from one another 
in important details, and, along with their respective 
amendments, constitute a mass of special school legis- 
lation of which no one knows the extent. ^ These charters 
bear, however, certain common marks worthy of note. 
Most of them are drawn without regard to the relation 
that should exist between city school districts and a 
state school system. Not until 1901 were city districts 
required to make reports; at that time they were also 
brought under the general supervision of the state de- 
partment of education. But long after that, they failed 
to make reports, certificated their own teachers, fixed 
salaries and adopted textbooks, without regard to the 
general school laws or ruUngs of the state board of educa- 
tion. Indeed, only recently have they come into any- 
thing like intimate relationship with the state depart- 
ment of education. 

These city charters are distinctly inadequate as guides 
in the development of modern city schools. They ordi- 
narily provide for a board of education, the establishment 
of graded schools, the employment of a superintendent 
and teachers, and bestow on the voters of the district 
the right to vote school taxes up to a specified limit; but 
they do not clearly define the powers and duties of the 
board of education, the relation between the board 
of education and the superintendent, the duties and 
powers of the superintendent, the status of the teachers — 
in short, the details upon which the modern city school 
really depends. 

Written by different men, at different times and under 



'The Public School Law of 1919 contains 972 references to these special acts, and 
the list is incomplete. 



Limitations and Conflicting Developments 97 

different circumstances, the specific provisions of these 
city charters vary enormously and without reason. For 
example, the maximum property tax that may be voted 
ranges from a total annual tax of $50 to an annual levy 
of $1.25 on each $100 of assessed property value. The 
boards range in membership from 3 to 24 persons. They 
are selected in various ways: by county boards of educa- 
tion; by county boards of education and county superin- 
tendents ; by town commissioners ; by town commissioners 
and county boards of education; by city aldermen; by 
city aldermen and local boards of education; while in 30 
instances they are elected by the people, and in 24 the 
members nominated in the original charter select their 
own successors. Self-perpetuating boards are obviously 
indefensible. 

Charters issued prior to 1901 were undoubtedly a boon 
to the cities getting them, but most of the districts that 
received charters after 1901 might better have remained 
under the county system. ^ Moreover, the creation of 
so many small special districts reacted imfavorably on 
the county unit. It reduced the resources of the county, 
lowered its dignity and prestige, and eliminated a most 
active and progressive influence for better schools. 

In order to operate their schools successfully and yet 
independently of the county system, cities must be of 
good size and financially able, after bearing their due 
proportion of county and state school taxes, to support 
schools on a modern basis. There are, perhaps, between 
20 and 30 of our cities so circumstanced that they should 
be permitted to continue as separate districts. However, 
in that event, there should be provided for all these dis- 
tricts a single, unified code adapted to the needs of modern 
city systems. Such a code will remedy the present legal 
confusion, simplify administration, increase public in- 

^After 1901, these centers could have taken advantage of the law permitting the 
formation of special tax districts. 



98 Public Education in North Carolina 

terest, and bring city school legislation into conformity 
with the constitutional mandate requiring the estab- 
lishment of a ''uniform system of pubhc schools." The 
remaining specially chartered districts — numbering ap- 
proximately 100 — should be returned to the rounty system. 

This will be to the advantage of all concerned. The 
county will gain in resources, prestige, and progressive- 
ness, and will be better able to employ the highest type 
of superintendent and supervisor, thus securing a better 
administration and supervision of its own schools, arid 
of the schools of the former small specially chartered 
districts. When these small specially chartered districts 
are rejoined to the county, they will become special tax 
districts, of which there are already approximately 2,000. 

Special tax districts, as suggested, are integral parts 
of the county school system. Such districts vote an 
additional special tax, beyond the state and county school 
tax, for the supplementary support of their schools. As 
a means of increasing local rural school support, special 
tax districts have proved a great success. For example, 
the amount levied locally in rural districts rose from 
$16,000 in 1901 to $810,000 in 1918. They have also 
been the chief means of arousing renewed interest in 
rural education, and of effecting consolidations. The 
best rural schools of the state are found in these special 
tax districts. 

Despite the immediately favorable results following 
the creation of special tax districts, their formation has 
caused wide differences in educational opportunity, and 
produced a condition which threatens to hinder future 
progress. The law of 1901 removed all limits on the 
bounds that the county board of education might set 
for a special tax district. With this freedom and under 
the impelling desire to secure better schools, the school 
districts in most counties have been gerrymandered be- 
yond relief. Special tax district lines include or exclude 



Limitations and Conflicting Developments 99 

farms, according as the owner is favorable or unfavor- 
able; they extend far up and down railroads, and far up 
and down rich river valleys — anywhere to enclose taxable 
property, particularly of corporations, that may accrue 
to the benefit of the particular district. As a result, the 
special districts, although they number only about a 
fourth of all the school districts of the state, possess the 
bulk of the taxable wealth of the state. 

The formation of special tax districts has thus intro- 
duced most of the objectionable features of the antiquated 
district system. There are rich districts and poor dis- 
tricts, good schools and poor schools, literate and illiterate 
sections; in short, educational development has been 
spotty and uneven. Moreover, for the poorer districts 
there is under present conditions little hope. It may be 
possible for the county boards of education under a 
liberal interpretation of the supreme court decision cited 
above to provide these districts with adequate school- 
houses and appropriate equipment at county expense, 
but is is, ordinarily, impossible for county boards to ex- 
tend' ttieif school terms beyond six months, and they are 
mostly unable to help themselves. The more forward- 
looking districts long since preempted much of the valua- 
ble property and particularly the corporate wealth that 
might properly have fallen to the less favored, so that 
even if the poorer districts were favorable to a sup- 
plementary tax at a high rate, the amount of money so 
raised would be very small, because the value of the 
property on which it could be levied is so limited. 

Such educational inequalities render the county system 
a nominal affair. A county-wide additional special 
school tax would correct conditions, but the special tax 
districts, as a rule, bar the way to this. Districts that 
. have long enjoyed exclusively the benefits of wealth, 
even though they may have no more right to it than a 
neighboring district, are reluctant to share its benefits. 

92468—8 



100 Public Education in North Carolina 

To redistrict the counties with a view to a more equitable 
distribution of taxable and especially of corporate prop- 
erty is impracticable. A constitutional amendment 
extending the compulsory school term to at least eight 
or nine months is the most direct course, but probably 
could not be carried, following so closely the recent ex- 
tension from four to six months. County boards can, 
however, be empowered to assume full financial respon- 
sibihty for the schoolhouses and school equipment, and the 
state can throw more of the responsibility for a six months' 
term on the counties, using state funds more largely to 
make uniform and. extend the school term. The further 
creation of special tax districts can be stopped and their 
present powers limited, and all can join in developing 
sentiment for county-wide additional special school taxes 
and schoolhouse bond issues. Otherwise there will con- 
tinue to exist side by side a quasi-county system and a 
close and exclusive district system, with glaring inequal- 
ities. 

We have not only failed to develop the financial and 
hence the educational possibilities of a county school 
system, but have also failed to develop the progressive 
leadership needed to operate such a system successfully. 
In the first place, our county boards of education have 
not commanded the full confidence of the people. We 
have experimented with almost every known method of 
selecting them, except selection by the qualified voters 
of the county at separate, non-partisan elections. ^ For 
example, our county commissioners have at two different 
times acted as an ex officio board of education; at one 
time county boards of education were appointed by the 
i ustices of the peace and county commissioners; at another, 
by the general assembly, and now by the general assembly 
on nomination at party primaries. None of these methods 

•At such elections, nominations are by petition, the names of the nominees are 
entered alphabetically on non-partisan tickets, and the terms are of such length 
and expire at such different times as to guarantee stability and continuity of policy. 




Fakm Life School— Craven County 




Consolidated School— Wilson County 



TEACHERS' HOMES-LARGE RURAL SCHOOLS 



Limitations and Conflicting Developments 101 

provides for the exercise by the people of a direct voice 
in the management of their schools or affords an adequate 
safeguard against partisan control. 

Again, in the exercise of leadership and in the manage- 
ment of the schools, county boards of education have 
been seriously handicapped by their inability to provide 
proper administrative and supervisory staffs. Up to 
1903 three dollars per day was the maximum salary 
allowed by law to county superintendents. Between 
1903 and 1917 the wealthier counties were free to employ 
county superintendents and to fix their salaries, but the 
poorer counties, those having a school fund of less than 
$15,000 — numbering 65 in 1903 — were limited to a max- 
imum of $600 . In neither instance were provisions 
made for supervisors. While the average salary of county 
superintendents rose gradually from $796 in 1910 to 
$1,298 in 1918, only with the passage of the new budget 
law of 1919, when the state assumed half and in certain 
instances more than half, of their salaries, has even the 
highest of these salaries been attractive to trained and 
experienced men. 

Inasmuch as the state until recently placed so little 
emphasis on effective administration and supervision, 
county boards of education generally looked upon su- 
pervision as unnecessary and took only a limited view of 
the field and function of the county superintendent. 
His duties as they conceived of them were chiefly clerical. 
Accordingly, a preacher, a lawyer, a doctor, a real estate 
agent, a merchant, a farmer, in fact, anyone fairly well 
educated and with a httle free time to dispose of was 
acceptable. As late as 1912 half of the county super- 
intendents gave only part time to the schools, and even 
now 17 counties have part-time superintendents. 

Moreover, the office has until lately been exposed to 
every kind of personal and political influence. County 
superintendents were not required until 1917 to hold 



102 Public Education in North Carolina 

certificates. Prior thereto good moral character and 
two years' experience as a teacher at some time in the 
candidate's career were the only requirements imposed. 
In consequence, not more than 40 of the 100 county su- 
perintendents now in office can possibly be said to be 
trained for their work. Twenty have not had the equiv- 
alent of high school education, and the remaining 40 
only from one to two years in college. 

On the other hand, few county boards employ super- 
visors to assist the county superintendent. Johnson 
County was the first to engage one, in 1912. Up to 1919 
25 other counties have employed supervisors for one or 
more years, and in 1919 14 counties were employing them. 
Supervision is not an established policy; a county may 
have it this year and abandon it next. The facts are, 
well qualified supervisors are not available, county boards 
do not appreciate their value, and, not being directly 
authorized to employ them, they hesitate to incur the 
additional expense. The state superintendent received 
in 1919 a small fund with which he has been able to co- 
operate with a few counties — some 23 — in providing 
supervisory officers, the state paying one-half the salary; 
but if supervision is to become general and effective 
within the immediate future, the state will have to bear 
a considerable part of the cost in all counties. 

County boards of education thus have as their executive 
officers superintendents who in many instances know 
little more about the schools than the board members 
themselves, and, with the exceptions cited, are without 
supervisors. Under these circumstances, the adminis- 
tration and supervision of the schools is necessarily weak, 
and the boards themselves, without professional guidance 
and stimulation, not infrequently do no more than the 
people demand, instead of pressing, as a county board 
of education should, the claims of the schools to the last 
point the people will accept. 



Limitations and Conflicting Developments 103 

To summarize, we have a so-called county school system, 
but we are far from realizing its financial and educational 
possibilities. This is due to constitutional and statutory 
limitations, to the development of an unusual number 
of small city and special tax districts, and to a lack of 
supporting pubHc sentiment. A constitutional amend- 
ment increasing the compulsory school year to eight or 
nine months would eliminate most of the hindrances to 
the full development of a county system. If such an 
amendment is not practicable, then appropriate legisla- 
tion should stop the formation of special tax districts, 
reduce the number of specially chartered districts, pro- 
vide a single unified code for large cities, and throw a 
larger proportion of the burden of a six months' school 
on the counties and cities. The county should also 
assume a larger responsibility especially for school build- 
ings, and effort should be concentrated on developing 
sentiment for county-wide additional special taxes and 
bond issues. The people should obtain a more direct 
voice in the control of their schools, and school manage- 
ment should be freed from partisan politics. Finally, 
the state should co-operate more generously in providing 
boards of education with adequate and appropriately 
trained administrative and supervisory staffs. 



PART III 

THE WAY OUT 

CHAPTERS Vm-X 



[10515 



VIII. BETTER ADMINISTRATION 

THE WAY to improve our schools is clearly through 
better administration, better trained teachers, 
and better financial support. Each of these 
topics will be considered in turn. 

Improved State Administration 

At the head of the public school system stands the 
state board of education, including among its members 
the state superintendent. 

An ex officio state board of education, as has been 
pointed out, is not the approved type of board. For 
this reason the constitution should be amended so as 
to permit the general assembly to create a lay board 
composed of five or seven citizens, to be appointed by 
the governor for prolonged terms, expiring at different 
times, so as to guarantee stability and continuity of 
educational pohcies. 

In the meantime, the present board should be made 
responsible for the general administration of the entire 
pubhc school system. All other state boards should be 
dispensed with — boards, for example, such as the state 
board of vocational education, the commission on instruc- 
tion in agriculture, manual training, and home economics, 
the state board of examiners and institute conductors, 
the state textbook sub-commission, and in certain in- 
stances state normal school boards, such, for example, 
as the board of the CuUowhee Normal and Industrial 
School, of the Appalachian Training School, of the 
Cherokee Indian Normal School, and the boards of the 
three state normal schools for Negroes. On the abolition 
of these agencies, the state board will assume the respon- 
sibiHty, through its executive officer, the state supedn- 

[1071 



108 Public Education in North Carolina 

tendent, for formulating rules and regulations affecting 
the organization and management of the public schools, 
the erection of school buildings, the certifioation of 
teachers, the management of the minor normal schools 
and of teacher training in general; that is, the state 
board will then exercise, through the state superintendent, 
the powers usually and properly so exercised. 

In a soundly organized educational system, the lay 
board, above mentioned, selects its executive officer, 
known as the state superintendent, and fixes his salary. 
This official advises the board on technical matters, 
represents it in dealing with the public, the legislature, 
and all parts of the school system, and is responsible for 
carrying out policies determined by the board. The 
present state board, however, does not possess an execu- 
tive officer in this sense of the term. The state super- 
intendent is chosen by the people, to whom he is respon- 
sible, and though, in effect, he is the executive of the 
state board, his relation to it has not been conceived 
from that point of view. The law should therefore be 
modified in this respect; in addition, no time should be 
lost in amending the constitution so as to permit the 
appointment of the state superintendent by the lay 
board of education above described. This amendment 
will not only tend to remove the office from politics, but 
will also place the board and its executive officer in a 
correct relation to each other. 

A state superintendent can not personally perform all 
the duties that fall to his lot as executive officer of a state 
board of education. To be effective, he must be pro- 
vided with a competent clerical and professional staff. 
Too often important duties are imposed on him and no 
provision made for performing them. A single example 
will illustrate what has repeatedly happened. Since 
1868, the state superintendent has been authorized to 
approve the plans for all schoolbouses erected by county 



Better Administration 109 

boards of education, and since 1903 county boards of 
education have been forbidden to expend public money 
on schoolhouses not built according to plans so approved. 
The state superintendent has, however, never been in 
position to enforce this excellent law; he has never been 
able to do much more than, at long intervals, to publish 
and distribute acceptable plans. No one knows how 
much money has been spent on rural schoolhouses dur- 
ing the last sixty years. Their present value is approxi- 
mately $6,000,000, a considerable part of which has 
doubtless been wasted or ineffectually spent because of 
the lack of proper supervision^ 

State superintendents are thus frequently left without 
appropriate stiffs, doubtless partly because the people 
are unable to appreciate the magnitude of their task 
and partly because the people d^ not understand their 
supervisory function. The superintendent's staff should 
care for the clerical details of the office, such as corres- 
pondence and the collection and tabulation of data 
regarding enrollment, attendance, and expenditures; 
it should see that the laws and rules and regulations of 
the state board of education are observed, that the 
conditions for participating in the state school fund and 
in special funds and appropriations, such as the equal- 
ization, building loan, and Smith-Hughes funds, are 
met; it should study the work and the needs of the schools, 
and publish reports thereon; it should also labor with 
the people directly, explaining the educational policies 
and plan^ of the state, helping to arouse local public 
sentiment, to effect consolidations and to plan buildings 
and grounds, advising with superintendents and teachers 
with regard to the organization of their schools, courses 
of study, classification of pupils, methods of teaching — 

iThe general assembly in August, 1920, wisely appropriated $10,000 for the estab- 
lishment of a division of schoolhouse planning in the oflBce of the state superintend- 
ent. 



110 Public Education in North Carolina 

in short, serving the people at all times and in all ways 
in the interest of better schools. 

There is a growing appreciation of the value of such 
centrally directed administrative service. For example, 
provision was made in 1901 for a supervisor of colored 
normal schools. More recently, when school extension 
work, instruction for adult illiterates, and vocational 
education were inaugurated, a director was provided in 
each instance. However, the state superintendent appre- 
ciated the imperative need of professional assistance 
long before the state was persuaded of its importance. 
From private agencies he obtaitied funds which enabled 
him to appoint a part-time high school supervisor in 1907, 
a white rural school supervisor in 1910, and a colored 
rural school agent in 1914. These agencies still bear 
the entire expense of maintaining these supervisors, 
including their salaries, traveling expenses, and steno- 
graphic help. Their work has been invaluable and is 
now well established; its importance is generally recog- 
nized; the time has come when the state should and can 
assume financial responsibility for it. 

The staff required by a state department of education 
varies with the size of the system, its organization, and 
stage of development. To equip properly our state 
department of education for the great work that lies 
immediately before it would require approximately the 
following stenographic, clerical, and professional assist- 
ants : 

1. Office of state superintendent, having, besides the 
state superintendent, a secretary, a stenographer, and 
supply clerk. 

2. Division of schoolhouse planning, with a director, 
one assistant, two draftsmen, and a stenographer. 

3. Division of teachers' certificates, with a director, 
two assistants, three clerks, two stenographers, and 
temporary readers. 




Statesville — Ibedell Colnty 





— -.. 




•-_ 




, ^ . j :'m 


-■«■■ 




.-sm 


l^iyi 


B 


^=4*gi 


1^ 


^^S 




-*^*-^^*' 


^m*^ 


*'«5S*5^ 





Sanford— Lee County 



NEW TYPE CITY SCHOOLS 



-^ 



Better Administration HI 

4. Division of supervision, with at least five supervisors 
and three stenographers, in charge of: 

a. White elementary schools; 

b. Colored elementary schools; 

c. High schools; 

d. Vocational instruction; 

e. Minor normal schools and teacher training; 

f. Instruction of adult iUiterates. 

5. Division of school extension work, with a director, 
two assistants, and a stenographer. 

6. Division of state school funds and school records, 
with a director, three assistants, four clerks, and one 
stenographer, in charge of: 

a. School funds, budgets, and accounting; 

b. School records and reports; 

c. School tests and measurements. 

The total expenditure for general administration in 
1918-1919, exclusive of postage and printing, was $43,- 
648. Of this the state paid $33,103, and outside 
agencies $10,545. The cost of a department such as 
that outlined above would approximate $125,000 an- 
nually, representing an administrative cost of between 
1 and 2 per cent on total school expenditures. No successful 
business operates with anything like so small an overhead 
charge. To save on administration is to waste in the 
end, for good administration vitalizes the whole system, 
and secures the largest return on all other expenditures. 
The special session of the general assembly of 1920 
appropriated $10,000 to establish a division of school- 
house planning and $5,000 for the better supervision of 
state school funds. The general assembly of 1921 should 
go still further, and that of 1923 should see the above 
program well toward completion. 



112 Public Education in North Carolina 

Improved County Administration 

Better county administration is as imperative as better 
state administration, for the state can not and ought 
not to administer the schools directly. At present, 
few county boards do more than look after the routine 
of the schools. The majority of the county superintend- 
ents are without proper qualifications, a fifth are part- 
time officers, only a third have clerks, and 23 have at 
present supervisors. 

The first step in elevating county boards of education 
to a position of influence is to set them in right relation 
to the people and to their problems. This will call for a 
change in the present method of electing county board 
members. 

The second step is to provide county boards with com- 
petent executives in the person of the county superin- 
tendent. The office of county superintendent must be 
placed on a strictly professional basis, that is, such pro- 
fessional preparations and experience should be required 
of all incumbents and future aspirants as will safeguard 
efficiency and eliminate all who rely for appointment on 
other than professional qualifications. The office must 
also be made attractive. Among other things, the 
term of appointment should be lengthened to at least 
four years so as to guarantee permanency and allow 
time to demonstrate ability in the development and exe- 
cution of policies, and the salary should be sufficient to 
encourage young men and women to make the necessary 
preparation, to keep them contented and enthusiastic, 
and hold them in service. The equipment of the 
office should correspond to the needs of the work. The 
counties should assume all necessary expenses incurred 
in the performance of professional duties; under no 
circumstances should such expenses be regarded as a part 
of the superintendent's salary, and proper provision 



Better Administration 113 

should be made for clerical details. No county should 
have less than one stenographic and clerical assistant, 
and in the very largest counties there should be at least 
two. 

In the 15 counties having less than 50 teachers, white 
and colored, a county superintendent, properly provided 
with office help, should be able to administer the schools 
effectively if one supervisor is provided for each two 
such counties. In the 22 counties having between 50 
and 75 teachers, the superintendent should have at least 
one supervisor; in the 40 counties having between 75 
and 125 teachers, at least two; in the 18 counties having 
between 125 and 175 teachers, at least three; and in the 
5 counties having over 175 teachers, at least four. 

The cost of the above plan would doubtless be three 
times the present expenditure, or approximately $1,- 
000,000 annually, but this expense should not be 
borne entirely by the counties. The state quite properly 
undertook in 1919 to pay half, and in some instances 
more than half, the salaries of all county superintend- 
ents, and half the salary of one supervisor in a limited 
number of counties, 23 in all. State school funds can not 
be used to better advantage than in procuring good 
supervision of instruction. The state should, therefore, 
place supervisors on the same basis as superintendents, 
paying at least half, and when necessary even more than 
half, the salaries of supervisors, thus reducing the local 
expense of efficient school administration. 

However, improvement in county administration will 
ii3cessarily be slow. Even if ample funds were at hand, 
properly trained county superintendents and supervisors 
are not now available from among the teachers of the 
state and it would be impracticable to import any con- 
siderable number from the outside. Properly qualified 
county superintendents and supervisors have to be 
educated, and this will take time. In the meanwhile, 



114 Public Education in North Carolina. 

the employment of competent and adequate clerical 
and professional staffs should be made mandatory upon 
all county boards of education, but the date at which this 
mandatory provision shall take effect in so far as it has 
to do with the employment of supervisors, should be 
left to the discretion and recommendation of the state 
board of education. The position of county superintend- 
ent as well as that of supervisor should be rendered secure 
and attractive, and their selection should be subject to 
the approval of the state superintendent. Finally, 
every means should be employed — even to the county 
board's paying the school expenses of one or more of its 
teachers — to encourage young men and women of promise 
to prepare for these important fields of service. Com- 
petent county superintendents should come first, for it 
is futile to introduce supervision unless the superintend- 
ent is efficient and appreciative. 

Improved City Administration 

There is equal need of improved city administration. 
For the small specially chartered districts, this will be 
achieved by placing them under county management, 
thus securing for them, as has been pointed out above, 
a higher type of administration and supervision than they 
can afford as long as they operate independently. 

In the larger cities, the problem of better administra- 
tion is not so much a question of better superintendents 
as a question of better organization and better working 
conditions. The superintendents of the larger cities 
are men of the highest personal qualities and professional 
spirit, although in a few instances they lack preparation 
and experience ; summer work at a good university will 
go far to correct these defects. Proper organization and 
working conditions can 4^sti be secured through repealing 
the thousand and one special city s^ool laws, and enact- 
ing, instead, a^ingle, uilm^(ftfoderfo|,all cities. 



Better Administration 115 

This code should provide, on the one hand, for the 
election of city school board members at large at a 
separate, non-partisan school election with nomination 
by petition, the names of the candidates being entered 
alphabetically on the non-partisan ballot. It should 
define the duties and powers of the board of education, 
the duties and powers of the superintendent, the status 
of teachers, etc. — all in harmony with the provisions 
governing the general state system. 

To protect the interests of the state and to make sure 
that the funds available for school purposes are sufficient 
to guarantee proper administration and supervision 
and the highest type of public schools, the code should 
lay down certain minimum requirements that cities 
must meet and fulfill in order to operate as city school 
districts. For example, the buildings, grounds, and 
equipment should conform to the rules and regulations 
of the state board of education; an elementary school of 
at least seven grades and a standard four year high school 
should be maintained; a superintendent, and, in cities 
having more than 30 teachers, at least one supervisor, 
holding the highest grade of superintendent's and super- 
visor's certificates, should be employed, as well as a high 
school principal, and an elementary school principal 
for each elementary school of the usual size; all new high 
school teachers should hold the highest grade of high school 
teacher's certificate, and all new elementary teachers, 
at least a ''C" grade elementary teacher's certificate; 
city elementary and high schools should be in session 
not less than 180 days annually, etc. 

'While city school districts w^ould be free to exceed 
these minimum requirements and to develop along lines 
of local interest, the proposed code would give unity and 
strength to their systems. 



92468 — 9 



IX. BETTER TRAINED TEACHERS 

IMPROVED state, county, and city administration 
will secure an economical and efficient management 
of the schools, but the efforts of superintendents 
and supervisors to improve classroom conditions will 
be ineffective unless they have experienced and well 
trained teachers as co-workers. Our teachers, as we 
have seen, are not well trained ; they are so lacking in 
preparation that, whatever the other needs of the schools, 
the need of efficient teachers is paramount. 

The way to get and hold well trained teachers is simple. 
Their tenure must be secure, their salaries attractive, 
and appropriate teacher training institutions must be 
readily accessible. 

The general assembly of 1919 and the special session 
of 1920, as stated before, materially increased the pay 
of teachers, and the new certification system guarantees 
the higher salaries to the teachers who are best prepared. 
These higher salaries and the new certification scheme 
will hearten the well trained teachers now in service, but 
the salaries offered are not yet sufficient to induce the 
ill prepared to get the additional training required for 
high grade certificates, or to induce sufficiently large 
numbers of young people to qualify themselves in the 
future. It is still the unprepared who are really favored. 

For example, an inexperienced high school graduate, 
with six weeks of professional preparation at a summer 
school, is paid $65 per month, with $5 per month increase 
each year after the first for four years. Hence, a high 
school graduate working eight months a year will earn 
in five years a total of $3,000. On the other hand, a 
graduate of a standard normal school, that is, a graduate 
of a high school who has completed successfully two 

[116] 



Better Trained Teachers 117 

years' work in a normal school, receives an initial salary 
of $90 per month, with $5 per month increase each year 
after the first for four years. At these rates, for eight 
months a year, the normal school graduate will earn in 
five years — two years in normal school and three years 
in teaching— a total of $2,280. Deducting $700, the 
estimated cost of a standard normal school education, 
the normal school graduate at the end of five years is 
$1,420 poorer financially by reason of having prepared 
herself for teaching than if she had entered the work 
directly from the high school, and she is approximately 
$820 poorer financially even if $300 a year is allowed 
the high school graduate for maintenance during the 
two years the normal school graduate is in school. Nor 
will the normal school graduate ordinarily make up this 
loss, for only a small proportion of teachers remain in the 
schools more than five or six years. The financial dis- 
parity between the high school graduate and the college 
graduate is even greater. The salaries of the well trained 
should be raised at least sufficiently to place them on a 
financial parity with the untrained. Otherwise, the schools 
will remain in unskilled hands. 

The present salary schedule has other discouraging 
aspects. The proposed salaries are computed, for example, 
on a monthly basis. Accordingly, the salary received 
will vary with the length of the school term, which may 
be as little as six months or as much as ten months. With 
such uncertainty as to salary, young people can not be 
expected to prepare themselves thoroughly for teaching, 
nor will well trained teachers endure these conditions. 
Such teachers must be guaranteed at least an annual 
minimum wage. This is only just, for they should not 
be expected to teach school six months and then be forced 
to spend the other six months in a factory or store in 
order to piece out a precarious living. To place the 
salaries of all professionally trained teachers, that is. 



118 Public Education in North Carolina 

those holding standard state certificates, on an annual 
basis will, of course, put the short term school at a dis- 
advantage. However, when rural school authorities 
find that they must pay a well trained teacher as much 
for a six months' school as for a nine months' school, 
the natural tendency will be to lengthen the rural school 
term. Unless this is done, we can not expect to have 
well trained rural teachers or good rural schools. 

Improved Teacher Training Facilities 

Next to good salaries and a good certification system, 
the most important factor in securing well trained 
teachers is adequate and appropriate teacher training 
facilities. Our teacher training facilities are, as we have 
seen, inadequate. We should be able to train, to the 
extent needed, every type of superintendent, supervisor, 
principal, and teacher required by the public schools. 
To afford such a range and variety of training, existing 
institutions will need to be enlarged and strengthened, 
new ones established, and, in order that unnecessary 
overlapping and duplication may be avoided, the specific 
work to be undertaken by each will have to be clearly 
defined. 

Among the existing teacher training institutions, the 
State University is the oldest. Courses for teachers 
were established there in 1877, both in regular term and 
in summer. The summer school has always been well 
attended, particularly in recent years; the enrollment 
in 1920 was 1,200. The attendance on educational courses 
in the regular term has not been so large, and the grad- 
uates have been relatively few in number. There were, 
in 1917-1918, altogether 86 of the University's graduates, 
including those from other departments, in public school 
work; 25 were in rural schools, 31 in city schools, 19 
were county superintendents, and 11 city superintendents. 
However, the service of the University to the public 



Better Trained Teachers 119 

schools can not be measured by the number of teachers 
it has turned out. Its graduates have always exercised 
an influence out of proportion to their number. 

The commanding position of the University among 
the schools of the state, the character of its student 
body, the probability that a larger proportion of its 
graduates will, in the future, become teachers, the past 
service of its graduates — all favor the development at 
the University of a school of education comparable to 
similar schools elsewhere, and the general assembly 
is under obhgation to develop such a department. 

The University has quite properly never attempted 
to furnish regular courses for elementary teachers, and 
should not do so in the future. Its efforts should be 
concentrated entirely on the preparation of high school 
teachers and principals, elementary principals and 
supervisors — provided women are admitted to the Uni- 
versity in numbers — and on the training of county and 
city superintendents. There should also be further 
developed, as a part of the school of education, an exten- 
sion division, equipped to make special studies, to test 
the achievements of pupils, and to advise with school 
officials regarding policies and plans. 

The North Carolina College for Women, established 
in 1891, is the only state institution of college grade open 
to women^ It has a dual function, offering college oppor- 
tunities to women, and training teachers. Neverthe- 
less, all graduates, except those who pay tuition, are 
required to teach at least two years. There were, in 
1917-1918, 303 graduates in service. 

The efforts of the Women's College in its teacher 
training work have been concentrated thus far chiefly 
on the preparation of elementary and high school teach- 
ers. The demands for specialized teacher training are 



iThe State University only recently opened its doors to women, in limited 
numbers. 



120 Public Education in North Carolina 

now increasingly urgent. The public schools require, 
to an extent formerly unknown, competent elementary 
and high school principals, special teachers, and well 
trained supervisors, and women in increasing numbers 
are aspiring to and being appointed to these positions. 

The North Carolina College for Women should be 
able to meet these pressing demands; but to offer proper 
courses for elementary teachers — probably both a two 
year and a four year course — strong courses for high school 
teachers, for teachers of the household and the fine arts, 
of public school music and physical education, for ele- 
mentary and high school principals, and for elementary 
supervisors, will call for increased support in the course 
of a reasonable period. It will be necessary, on the one 
hand, to enlarge the academic faculty, if it is to give 
the requisite academic instruction, and, on the other, 
to enlarge, the professional faculty, and improve the 
facilities for practice teaching. To accomplish this 
larger work as economically as possible, particularly 
the training of special teachers and of elementary and 
high school principals and supervisors, the student body 
should be enlarged, and additional dormitories and class- 
rooms will have to be provided accordingly. 

The East Carolina Teachers Training School, estab- 
lished in 1907, was founded for the sole purpose of train- 
ing elementary teachers. This purpose has been kept 
constantly in mind and well fulfilled. Its professional 
course covers two years based on graduation from a four 
year high school. When the new dormitory is completed 
it will have capacity for 300 students; it had, in 1917- 
1918, 159 graduates in the field. 

In view of the growing demand for well trained ele- 
mentary school principals and supervisors, and the 
further fa«.'t that the present two year course no longer 
qualifies its graduates, under the new certification 
scheme, for the highest grade of elementary teacher's 



Better Trained Teachers 121 

certificate, the time has undoubtedly come when the 
East Carohna Teachers Training School should be 
raised in rank so that it may offer four year as well as 
two year professional courses. Its work, however, should 
still be limited to the elementary school field, that is, 
to the training of elementary school teachers, principals, 
and supervisors. That this may be done economically, 
and the teacher training facilities of the state increased, 
the capacity of the school should be doubled. 

If the school of education at the State University, the 
North Carolina College for Women, and tho East Caro- 
lina Teachers Training School are enlarged and their 
work developed as we have indicated, the state would 
have three teacher training institutions of high order 
admitting only graduates of standard four year high 
schools. These three institutions thus enlarged and 
developed would, along with the private colleges, be able 
to train the city and county superintendents, the super- 
visors, the elementary and high school principals, and 
the high school teachers needed in the schools of the 
state. They would also be able to turn out annually 
probably 400 well trained elementary teachers having 
had either two or four year courses. While 400 well 
trained elementary teachers are only a fifth of the new 
white elementary teachers required annually, it would 
nevertheless be futile at this time to establish additional 
teacher training institutions requiring for admission 
graduation from standard four year high schools, for 
probably the total number of graduates from standard 
four year high schools does not now exceed 1,800 annually, ^ 
and the three state institutions already considered, along 
with the private colleges offering courses in education, 
can for some years probably care for all of these who seek 



iThere were, in 1917-1918, 225 public high schools attempting four year courses, 
but only 104 of these at most could be called standard high schools. 



122 Public Education in North Carolina 

to prepare for teaching,. Such other teacher training 
institutions as the state should maintain for the proper 
preparation of the remaining 1,600 white elementary- 
teachers must for the present necessarily be of lower 
grade, that is, admit students who have had less than 
a standard four year high school course. 

The Appalachian Training School and the Cullowhee 
Normal and Industrial School are practically schools 
of this non-standard type. The Appalachian Training 
School has done invaluable work for the surrounding 
sections, but it is not a normal school in the accepted 
sense of the term; it is rather a regional high school, 
doing teacher training incidentally. The same is true of 
Cullowhee, although Cullowhee has recently attempted to 
develop a two year teacher training course beyond the 
high school. The impossibility of developing such a 
course is apparent when account is taken of the fact 
that there are only three counties — Cherokee, Haywood, 
and Buncombe — in the entire mountain region that 
maintain standard high schools. Boone had in 1917- 
1918 43 former students teaching, and Cullowhee, 75. 

However valuable these two schools have been as 
regional high schools, the time has come for a reorganiza- 
tion of their work. Henceforth their energies should be 
devoted entirely to training elementary teachers, leaving 
all high school instruction, as such, to high schools that 
should be established in the mountain sections. These 
schools should be modified to conform to the type of 
normal school common a decade ago and still found in 
the Middle West. That is, they should admit students 
who have completed the seventh grade of the elementary 
school and graduates of non-standard high schools, and 
give them a two, three, or four year course planned to 
meet the needs of elementary teachers. No graduates 
from standard four year high schools should be admitted; 
such graduates should go to Chapel Hill, to Greensboro, 




Hanes School— Forsyth Coun 




Cornelius Harxett School — Wilmington 



SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS 



Better Trained Teachers 123 

or to Greenville, or to private colleges offering courses 
in education. On the other hand, these minor normal 
schools should not be a bhnd alley; the way should be 
open for their graduates to enter without loss the higher 
institutions of the state, both public and private. Both 
schools are well located to serve their respective sections, 
and, if properly developed and equipped, should grad- 
uate at least 100 elementary teachers a year. 

This would still leave 1,500 of the 2,000 white teachers 
required annually unprovided for. How are they to be 
trained? Among the immediate means available is the 
further extension of county summer schools and of high 
school training departments. County summer schools 
are valuable in reaching young people without high school 
advantages who are teaching for the first or second time, 
and who would otherwise ordinarily enter the classroom 
without any special preparation. High school training 
departments, on the other hand, reach tenth and eleventh 
grade high school students. The work of such depart- 
ments generally covers two years and is included as a 
part of the last two years of the regular high school 
course. It covers a thoroughgoing study of most of the 
common school subjects and a limited amount of pro- 
fessional work, including observation and practice teach- 
ing. Students taking such a course usually enter the 
rural schools and are far better equipped for such an 
undertaking than if they had had only six weeks in a 
standard summer school. Indeed, many students so 
prepared develop into excellent teachers. Twenty-two 
states now maintain high school training departments, 
and they are generally recognized as one of the most 
effective and cheapest means of reaching large numbers 
of prospective rural teachers ^ 

iThese departments have been especially developed in Minnesota. A study of 
their work has been recently made by Dr. Lotus D. Coffman, entitled "Teacher 
Training Departments in Minnesota High Schools. " A copy of this study can be 
obtained gratis on application to the General Education Board, 61 Broadway, 
New York City. 



124 Public Education in North Carolina 

While county summer schools and high school training 
departments should be used extensively for the time 
being, they are temporary expedients. The final solu- 
tion of the problem of elementary teacher training is the 
timeworn recommendation that the state establish ten 
additional normal schools of the type suggested for 
Boone and Cullowhee, with the understanding that 
they are to be raised, one by one, to standard normal 
schools whenever this step is justified by the increased 
number of graduates from four year high schools, and 
by the demand for teachers holding the higher grades 
of elementary certificates. A single normal school of 
the type contemplated, accommodating 600 students 
and training 150 teachers a year, would cost, for plant, 
probably $500,000, and for current maintenance, about 
S75,000. 

It would be inadvisable for the state to attempt to 
estabhsh at one stroke ten such schools, but we believe 
that the general assembly of 1921 should provide for at 
least one. Otherwise there will be no state teacher 
training institution east of the mountains to care for the 
boys and girls who are without home high school op- 
portunities, or for those in the 26 counties having no 
standard high schools, either city or rural, or for 
those in the 70 counties having no standard rural 
high schools who have completed one, two, three, 
and four year courses in non-standard high schools and 
who expect to teach. As intimated, this school should be 
located east of the mountains, and should prepare teachers 
solely for the rural schools. 

What was said above about the Appalachian Training 
School and the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School 
appHes with equal force to the three colored normal 
schools. The school at Winston-Salem is the best of 
these, but even Winston-Salem has much to do before 
jt will be a real normal school, while the work of the 



Better Trained Teachers 125 

Elizabeth City and Fayetteville schools should be com- 
pletely reorganized and redirected. Colored students 
desiring a high school education should enter the colored 
high schools of the cities, or the county training schools, 
or one of the many private colored schools; the efforts 
of the state normal schools should be centered on the 
training of colored elementary teachers. The new 
dormitories at Elizabeth City and Fayetteville, and the 
new science building at Winston-Salem add to the 
respective resources of these schools, but their facilities 
and current support will need to be further increased if 
they are to do efficient teacher training and provide any- 
thing like the 350 new colored teachers required annually. 
As a temporary assistance to this end, the number of 
colored county summer schools should also be increased 
and the state should co-operate actively in the develop- 
ment of the county training schools now maintained in 
19 counties. 

The Cherokee Indian Normal School stands by itself 
and presents a unique and difficult problem. This so- 
called normal school has three regular teachers and a 
part time music teacher, and an enrollment of 151 pupils, 
with 4 above the seventh grade. The main building is a 
dilapidated frame structure of four classrooms and an 
auditorium. There is also a dormitory, with places for 
24 students, completed in 1916; this provides the prin- 
cipal and teachers with comfortable quarters, but there 
has never been but one boarding student. As a public 
school, the Cherokee Normal is doing an excellent service, 
although recently crippled by the diversion of $500 of 
its meager fund of $3,100 to the public school at Chapel; 
as an institution to train Indian teachers for the 3,000 
Indian children of the state, it is a failure. 

Finally, there is need of a change in the management 
of state teacher training institutions. When teacher 
training institutions are well established and their main 



126 Public Education in North Carolina 

purpose can not easily be subordinated to local interests, 
it may be well enough for them to have separate local 
managing boards. Even in such instances, there should 
be uniformity in the size of the managing boards, length 
of term, and method of appointment. The state board 
of education should appoint the respective local board 
members, and also have final approval of the teacher 
training courses offered. When teacher training insti- 
tutions are small and local interests can easily divert 
them from the purpose for which they are maintained, 
it is contrary to the best interests of the state to place 
their management in the hands of local boards. To the 
end that the minor normal schools may be rigorously 
held to the purposes for which they are maintained and 
to the specific work allotted them in a general and unified 
teacher training program, we would recommend that 
the local managing boards of the Appalachian Training 
School, the Cullowhee Normal and Industrial School, 
of the three colored normal schools (Winston-Salem, 
Ehzabeth City, and Fayetteville) , and of the Cherokee 
Indian Normal School be abolished, and that the general 
management of these schools be vested in the state board 
of education, with an able and competent supervisor, 
working under the state superintendent, in direct charge. 
It is a simple matter of legislation to improve the 
administration of existing teacher training institutions, 
but to carry out the teacher training program outlined 
above is a large task, which can not, for financial reasons, 
if no other, be accomplished at a single stroke. The 
general assembly of 1921 should, we beheve, confine its 
efforts chiefly to enlarging, strengthening, and redirecting 
the work of existing institutions and providing more 
liberally for county summer schools and high school 
training departments. In addition, provision should be 
made for the establishment of at least one normal school 
of the type suggested, which would admit students of 



Better Trained Teachers 127 

less than high school preparation and train them for 
teaching in the rural schools. Though one additional 
normal school will not meet present needs, it is probably- 
all that can be undertaken now. Other similar schools 
should be established in the near future, and, indeed, 
they must be established if the rural schools are to have 
well trained teachers. 



X. BETTER FINANCIAL SUPPORT 

OUR educational progress is obviously conditioned 
on more liberal financial support. There is not 
a branch of the system that does not require 
larger expenditures. More money is needed for grounds, 
buildings, and equipment, more money to lengthen the 
school term and broaden school programs, more money 
for teachers' salaries, more money for teacher training 
institutions, more money for administration and super- 
vision — how much more, no one can tell. One thing is 
certain — it will require more than three times the present 
amount even to bring present expenditures up to the 
country- wide average, ^ and there is no reason to suppose 
that good schools can be maintained more cheaply in 
North Carolina than elsewhere. 

Some doubtless feel that public school tax burdens are 
already heavy enough; in isolated instances they prob- 
ably are, but in the state as a whole public school taxes 
are low. Surely our state, fourth in agriculture and 
eleventh in the amount of internal revenue and in- 
come and excess profits taxes paid, will not much longer 
permit itself to be ranked near the bottom in public school 
education and in public school efficiency. Others may 
think that recent progress has been so great as to leave 
little to be done to raise our schools to the level of the 
very best. Our recent progress has, indeed, been rapid 
and gratifying, but the progress of other states has been 
equally rapid, leaving us in 1918 practically in the same 
relative position among the states educationally as in 
1890. 



iThe country-wide average current expenditure per pupil enrolled was, in 1917- 
1918, $30.91; for North Carolina, $8.49. The country-wide average outlay for new 
buildings, grounds, etc., was $5.71; in North Carolina, $1.83. (Bulletin No. U, 
1920, Bureau of Education, page 67) 
[128] 



Better Financial Support 129 

The financial support of the pubhc schools is derived, 
first, from the state literary fund. This comprises an 
interest-bearing principal of about $1,300,000. Since 
1903, the literary fund and current interest therefrom, 
with the exception of $2,000 appropriated annually 
for schoolhouse plans, has constituted a revolving build- 
ing loan fund, from which the state board of education 
makes loans, at a low rate of interest, to boards of educa- 
tion of the less favored counties, for the erection of school- 
houses. No better use could be made of this permanent 
fund than to employ it in financing new school buildings, 
and, if possible, it should be increased by legislative 
appropriations. 

The principal of this fund has always been held sacred, 
at times under most trying conditions, but it is still true 
that any general assembly, if so minded, might dissipate 
it. Dr. Joyner called attention to this fact in 1903, 
saying: ''The use of this sacred fund for any temporary 
purpose would, as I see it, be a drive against past, present, 
and future generations." It is of course improbable that 
the fund will be diverted from its proper use. There 
would be an advantage, however, in so amending the 
constitution as to make the principal inviolable. 

All other financial support comes from public school 
taxes, including special school district taxes, county school 
taxes, and a state school tax, and from minor appropria- 
tions from the general treasury, and from fines and for- 
feitures which go to the counties. The returns from the 
state school tax, levied on all the taxable property in the 
state, make up the state public school fund, and it is of 
this that we wish to speak in particular. 

The state public school fund amounted, in 1919-1920, 
to $3,500,000. What is left of this fund, after deduct- 
ing minor appropriations for medical inspection and free 
dental clinics, rural libraries, agriculture, the state board 



130 Public Education in North Carolina 

of examiners, teacher training, etc., is apportioned among 
the counties and cities to provide a six months' school. 

The minor appropriations from the state pubhc school 
fund are in certain instances for selected activities, for 
which the counties and cities are primarily responsible, 
but in which the state wishes to arouse special interest — 
for example, medical inspection and rural libraries. 
In such instances the state usually bears half the cost 
and the county or city the other half. In other instances 
these minor appropriations are for functions that properly 
belong to the state — for example, the certification of 
teachers — and the state rightly assumes the entire bur- 
den. Ordinarily, appropriations for teacher training are 
made direct to institutions and from the general treasury. 
The general assembly of 1919, however, made an appro- 
priation for teacher training from the state public school 
fund, placing this appropriation at the disposal of the 
state superintendent. It has been wisely used to organize 
county summer schools for teachers and to establish 
teacher training departments in high schools, the state 
sharing the expense with the local authorities. However, 
to call upon local authorities to share in the cost of even 
these temporary means of training teachers is, we believe, 
an unwise practice. Teacher training is a recognized 
state function, and the state should assume complete 
financial responsibility for it. The appropriation for this 
particular work should be large enough to enable the 
state superintendent to conduct, without expense to 
local authorities, a county summer school for teachers 
wherever needed, and to establish a high school training 
department wherever conditions are favorable. Other- 
wise, it may be impossible to establish them where con- 
ditions are most favorable and where they can do the 
most good. 

In apportioning to the counties and cities what remains 
of the state pubhc school fund after all minor appro- 



Better Financial Support 131 

priations are deducted, the state seeks, so far as possible 
(a) to equalize school tax burdens, (b) to equalize school 
opportunities, and (c) to equalize efficiency — all approved 
and worthy ends. 

School tax burdens are notoriously unequal, and arise 
because the cost of maintaining schools is practically 
uniform from city to city and from county to county, 
whereas the taxable wealth back of each child to be 
educated varies enormously from city to city and from 
county to county. Accordingly, if the entire burden of 
maintaining a six months' school rests upon the respective 
cities and counties, there will be the widest differences 
in the tax rates required to provide the needed funds; 
the rate in one city or county may be 35 cents, and in 
another, 70 cents. 

The state attempts to reduce such inequalities for the 
first three months of a six months' school. It apportions 
from the state public school fund to each county and to 
each city an amount sufficient to pay for three months 
the salaries of all teachers of every sort, and one-half the 
annual salaries of the county superintendents and one- 
third the annual salaries of the city superintendents. 
The respective counties and cities have paid into this 
fund at the same rate and in proportion to their taxable 
property, and each thus shares alike in it. 

The state also endeavors to equalize, so far as is prac- 
ticable, the financial sacrifice for the second three months. 
For example, when a county has levied a specified school 
tax rate, which approximates the average coimty rate 
necessary to raise sufficient funds, along with what is 
received from the state, to maintain a six months' school, 
and such county finds itself unable to maintain its schools 
six months, the state makes an additional apportionment 
from the state public school fund sufficient to keep the 
schools open the minimum term. 

In thus apportioning its pubhc school fund, the state 

92468 — 10 



132 Public Education in North Carolina 

has this further end in view — the equahzation of educa- 
tional opportunities. All children, irrespective of whether 
they live in Ashe or in New Hanover are now guaranteed 
at least a six months' school. The state can not^ however, 
stop here. In the past, we have condoned intolerable 
differences in the length of school terms. The cities 
provided eight or nine months' schooling, some counties 
seven or eight months', and other counties only four 
months'; in short, a child's educational opportunities 
varied according as he chanced to live in one place or 
another. These same intolerable differences will con- 
tinue, unless the state attempts to equahze opportunities 
beyond six months, for some counties will provide eight 
or nine months, and others will be content with six. A 
part of the old equalization fund was for a time used to 
lengthen the school term beyond the constitutional 
minimum of four months, and there is no reason why a 
part of the state public school fund might not now be 
similarly employed, provided it were sufficiently increased. 
It would probably be impracticable to attempt atone 
stroke actually to equahze the length of school term, 
but a beginning should be made. The limit of equahza- 
tion might well be fixed for the present at six and a half 
months, later raised to seven, and so on until all the 
children of the state enjoy a standard school year of eight 
or nine months. Such action would serve the best inter- 
ests of both present and future generations, and would 
at the same time mean the gradual elimination of special 
tax districts, the stumbling block to a county-wide special 
school tax and to the development of efficient county 
school systems. 

There is a further serious limitation on present prac- 
tice. The state makes no distinction between elementary 
schools and high schools ; it assumes responsibility for 
the salaries of the teachers of both for three months, 
and the city or county, with the exception noted above. 



Better Financial Support 133 

for the period beyond three months. Owing to the greater 
cost of high schools, this arrangement works to the edu- 
cational disadvantage of the children in the less wealthy 
counties. To do creditable work, high schools must have 
a term of at least eight months. The expense of main- 
taining them entirely from local funds, in most cases 
for not less than five months and in all for not less than 
two months, will be extremely burdensome to the less 
prosperous counties, and particularly to those requiring 
an additional apportionment to maintain their schools 
six months. Many counties will not undertake it. As 
previously pointed out, 39 counties are now without 
standard high schools of any kind, and 85 have no stand- 
ard rural high schools. High schools are essential if the 
state is toenjoy enlightened leadership, and if the schools 
are to have well trained teachers. If good high schools 
are to be brought within the reach of all children, the 
state will need to contribute more largely than now to 
their support. On the basis of the best practice elsewhere, 
it will need, at least for the present, to contribute not 
less than half of the total instructional cost, and in the 
poorer counties, after they have done their full financial 
duty, as much more as is necessary to maintain a stand- 
ard school. The special session of the general assembly 
of 1920 wisely put the state superintendent in a position 
to initiate this policy in a limited number of cases. How- 
ever, if its high school support is increased, it will be 
incumbent upon the state to exercise a more watchful 
care over the establishment and location of high schools, 
the length of high school term, the quality and number of 
teachers employed, programs of study, and the quality 
of work. 

The present use of the state public school fund tends 
also to equalize differences in school efficiency. These 
are as glaring as the differences in length of school term 
and school tax burden. Up to a six months' term the 



134 Public Education in North Carolina 

less prosperous counties are now able to employ well 
qualified teachers. They are, however, at a disadvantage 
when they seek to pay higher salaries than the state 
shares in, and particularly so when they attempt to 
extend the school term beyond six months. Neverthe- 
less, that the less prosperous counties are now prac- 
tically on a plane of equality for even six months with 
the more favored counties is a tremendous educational 
advance. 

The state's assumption of one-half the salary of all 
county superintendents works to the same end. But 
here again the less prosperous counties will ordinarily 
be heavily handicapped. Even half the salary of a com- 
petent superintendent, along with his incidental expenses, 
is a heavy burden to many of them. Educational efficiency 
is impossible without proper leadership. Appreciating 
this fact, the state superintendent has interpreted the 
equahzation provision of the six months' school law as 
extending to county superintendents. Accordingly, he 
has assisted the several counties beyond one-half of the 
superintendent's salary in the same proportion as the 
respective counties participate in the equalization fund 
to maintain a six months' school. Competent superin- 
tendents are thus brought more nearly within the reach 
of all the counties, and educational inequalities are thereby 
further reduced. 

For precisely the same reasons, supervisors should be 
placed on the same basis as superintendents. That is, 
the state should pay a like proportion of the salary of 
at least one supervisor for each county having fifty or 
more teachers, and of one supervisor for each two adjoining 
counties having respectively less than fifty teachers. 
Thus, to bring within reach of all the counties at least 
one strong supervisor would do .more than any other 
single step to quicken and inspire the teaching body 
to improve classroom work. 



Better Financial Support 135 

The present uses of the state public school fund are 
thus eminently sound. However, fully to equalize school 
tax burdens, school opportunities, and school efficiency 
is the work of years. In the meantime, provision should 
be made for the next step. The state public school fund 
should be so increased as to make possible the establish- 
ment of county summer schools and teacher training 
departments wherever needed, to provide more effectively 
for a uniform system of high schools, to provide all coun- 
ties with capable, trained superintendents and with at 
least one supervisor, and to provide for equahzing the 
length of the school term up to six and a half months. 
These increases are in addition to those that will be 
required to meet the necessary increase in teachers' 
salaries, to enlarge and improve present teacher training 
nstitutions, to establish at least one new normal school, 
and to equip properly the state department of education. 

Finally, there should be a state school budget. At 
present it is almost impossible to tell what the state appro- 
priates from its general treasury and what it raises by 
state taxation for public education. The various financial 
provisions and appropriations are scattered in a score or 
more of laws and in as many places. If a single educational 
budget is not feasible, there should at least be a budget 
for the state board of education and for all activities and 
institutions under its control. 



The foregoing pages have, it is hoped, placed before 
the people of North Carolina a just account of the educa- 
tional facilities and needs of the state. Progress depends 
in the last analysis upon two factors: (1) the wilhngness 
of the people to look at the problem in a large way, 
considering it not from the selfish standpoint of a single 
district, or even a county, but rather from the point of 



136 Public Education in North Carolina 

view of the state taken as a whole; (2) the willingness 
of the people to pay, up to the measure of their actual 
ability, for the improvements that have been recom- 
mended. With a few words on each of these topics 
this volume will be brought to a close. 

The State of North Carolina is a unit. In the long run 
what is best for the whole state will prove to have been 
best for its component parts. For many years, general 
state- wide improvement could hardly have been effected; 
separate steps had therefore to be taken — a step in advance 
here, another there. There has been so much special 
legislation that the state is, educationally, broken up in 
ways that practically prevent harmonious or uniform 
state-wide progress. In consequence, our present condi- 
tions are irregular and at times unfair. The time has come 
when, without unduly disturbing what has been any- 
where accomplished, conditions should be established 
which will make it possible not only for progressive 
communities to advance still further, but for backward 
communities to join them at the front. Are the people 
of North Carolina so in earnest that a combined move- 
ent of this kind is practicable? 

If so, after securing appropriate legislation, what can 
be accomplished becomes largely a question of money. 
Education is not cheap. It is expensive and it is every 
day becoming more expensive. But let it not be for- 
gotten that education is the most profitable investment 
that a state can make. Wealth flows into the states where 
the tax rate for education is relatively high, not into the 
states where it is relatively low. ^'Too poor to maintain 
schools? " cries out one of the greatest of North CaroUna's 
sons, ''The man who says it is the perpetuator of pov- 
erty. It is the doctrine that keeps us poor. It has driven 
more men and more wealth from the state and kept 
more away than any other doctrine ever cost us." 



Better Financial Support 137 

Our suggestions involve large expenditures; but the 
state can afford them. As our educational facilities 
develop, our wealth will increase; we shall be able to 
spend more still in training the children of the state. 
Breaking the vicious circle of poverty and ignorance, 
we shall have started a beneficent circle of intelligence 
and efficiency. 



/«• 



,Llt 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



022 165 629 



f 



